


Horsemen

by DarkZorua100



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Beware of Psycho Yuus, Blood, Character Death, Demon!Yuya, Drastic Character Change, If Leo was actually smart AU, Multi, Necrophilia, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Yes he needs his own tag because that is a warning all on its own, and in which case the Bracelet Girls became the main leads, spoilers if not up to date on the anime, this whole thing is really messed up when you think about it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 07:18:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 39,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8740000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkZorua100/pseuds/DarkZorua100
Summary: In a world where Akaba Leo was actually smart, what would have happened if he went after the Yuus instead of the Bracelet Girls first to make sure that Zarc doesn't return? A whole lot of bad, that's what.





	1. Conquest

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to this mess of a story! I'm Darky and this is my first story here on this site, otherwise known as "What would have happened if Leo wasn't an idiot!" Yay! If you came here from my Tumblr, I hope this was worth the wait and a good start to this trainwreck! 
> 
> All jokes aside, like I said, this is my first time using this site so I have no idea what I'm doing XD Still, I really do hope you guys enjoy this first part. I personally loved how the duel turned out, yes there is a duel straight off the bat, and what I have planned for the next two chapters. Speaking of duels, I did have to change some of the cards' effects up a bit just to make them work but I hope that doesn't throw anyone off from reading this.
> 
> But that's enough for now. Like I said, I really hope you guys enjoy the first part to this...even though I might have just destroyed some characters mentally...

He appeared only a few hours ago.

When Sergey first showed up in the Underground Labor Facility, Gallager thought he saw everything that a monster was made up of. However, unlike Sergey, who was able to be tamed, the same couldn’t be said about this demon of a duelist.

He arrived out of nowhere, clothed in a white robe that served to cover his whole body and a pale mask shaped in the form of a dragon to hide his face. He called himself the “Conqueror” and he did just that. He challenged anyone he could find in the facility to a duel and in minutes, he would beat them brutally with his Synchro Summoned monsters.

And after that…

Another blood curdling scream echoed throughout the Facility. Gallager didn’t even have to look from behind the minecart he was hiding behind to know what just happened and yet he still did.

The Conqueror deactivated his duel disk after the blinding light vanished. Bending down, he picked up a simple card and dusted it off.

“That was the last of the Security you sent to put me down, Promoter.” The Conqueror spoke in a hollow tone mixed with what sounded like pure aggression. Gallager gulped, watching as the duelist before him took the card he held and placed it into a different compartment of his duel disk. Gallager could have sworn he heard it growl as soon as it was _fed_ that card. “Now, do you wish to call in more reinforcements or do you finally want to accept your fate and duel me?”

That’s what Gallager has been trying to do for the past hour now. However, no one has responded to his distress signal, not anymore anyway. The first round of Security was standard, the second round was when he knew he really found something worth keeping, but now with the third round being taken down with ease, Roger must have realized that losing so many of his soldiers wasn’t worth the risk of capturing one very strong one that he could use to take over the City and has abandoned Gallager to fend for himself.

 _Curse you, Roger._ Gallager thought as he searched around the Facility for the nearest exit. _Maybe if I can just outrun this monster…_

So that’s what he did, Gallager shot up from behind the minecart and took off running like his life depended on it, which it did in every sense of the word.

“Where do you think you are going?”

Gallager let out a gasp as something, a blue energy whip, wrapped itself around his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. “What?!” The Promoter exclaimed, pulling at it to try to break himself free but it seemed to be futile.

“Stop your pointless struggling. It irritates me.”

The Conqueror wasn’t kidding around either as he purposely pulled his end of the whip with enough force to cause Gallager to almost fall face rest to the ground.

 _Just how strong is this demon?_ Gallager wondered as he looked over the Conqueror. When this guy first showed up, other then his mask and his robe, he didn’t stick out much. Judging from his size, he couldn’t be that old. A teenager at most which only served to make this even more terrifying.

“Now,” the energy whip disappeared from sight but Gallager could still feel it wrapped around him, “let's not waste anymore time here.”

The Conqueror activated his duel disk, a different model from the normal ones you would see in the Synchro Dimension. The body appeared to be a white dragon’s head with the deck placed into its mouth. The green eyes of the dragon glowed as the blade of the disk took form, a see through clear wing.

Not having any choice in the matter, Gallager reluctantly took out his own duel disk he kept on him in case of emergencies and activated it. This was had a golden body with jewels embedded into it that projected a orange blade.

“Duel!”

**The Conqueror: 4000**

**Gallager: 4000**

The Conqueror took the first move. “Since I control no cards on my field, I can play Speed Draw. With its effect, I can draw two cards and then send one Speedroid monster from my hand to the graveyard.”

“Next, I summon Speedroid Double Yoko in attack mode.”

A monster that appeared to be two large green wheels with blades connected to them appeared next to the white duelist (ATK: 1400 DEF: 1400).

“When Double Yoko is normal summoned, I can special summon one level 3 or lower Speedroid monster from my graveyard.”

“So besides the draw power, you played Speed Draw to use Double Yoko’s effect.” Gallager concluded.

“No shit sherlock.” The monster that the Conqueror sent to the graveyard came out of his graveyard slot and he placed it onto his blade. “Come forth, the tuner monster, Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!”

Like its name suggested, this Speedroid monster was a yellow dice with red eyes on each of its six sides (ATK: 100 DEF: 100).

“Red-Eyed Dice’s effect activates! When it is summoned, it can change the level of a Speedroid monster on my field from levels 1 through 6. That level I chose is-”

Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice rolled itself which landed on-

“Level 2!”

“I now tune my level 4 Speedroid Double Yoko with my level 2 Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!”

The two Speedroid monsters shot into the air with Red-Eyes Dice becoming two green synchro rings with Double Yoko becoming four stars as it went through the rings.

_"Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 6! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"_

From the two monsters came a burst of blinding light. Emerging from said light was a monster that appeared to be a weaponised blue kendama in attack position (ATK: 2200 DEF: 1600).

“Impressive,” Gallager admitted staring the new Synchro Monster down before letting out a shaky laugh, “but that monster doesn’t do you any real good on the first turn since you can’t attack.”

“I activate Hi-Speedroid Kendama’s effect.” The Conqueror continued, seemly ignoring the comment as he took Speedroid Double Yoko from his graveyard and removed it from play. “By banishing a Speedroid from my graveyard, I can inflict 500 point of damage to your life points.”

“What?!” Gallager watched as Kendama shot a blue beam from the tip of its blade at him. As soon as the attack hit, Gallager knew something was wrong right away as the damage from the attack felt more real than normal from normal solid vision that it had him holding his chest in pure agony.

**The Conqueror: 4000**

**Gallager: 3500**

“I set two cards face down. Turn end.” The Conqueror finished his first turn as two face downs appeared in front of him.

 _Just what the hell is this guy?_ Gallager wondered as he struggled to draw his card. “I-I activated Foolish Burial which allows me to send a monster from my deck to the graveyard.” After doing just that, he held up a spell card. “I now active the field spell, Shiranui Style Synthesis!”

Behind his mask, the Conqueror glanced around as purple clouds slowly started to enveloped the field along with a purple mist. “What is the point of this?” He questioned, sounding more hostile by the second.

“I’ll tell you. When I control no monsters, Shiranui Style Synthesis allows me to special summon a Zombie-Type monster from my graveyard as long as it has 0 DEF points. You're not the only one who can summon monsters from the grave, Conqueror, so raise from the depths of the underground, Shiranui Smith!”

Breaking up from the ground was a old blacksmith dressed in white robes (ATK: 1000 DEF: 0).

“And now I summon the tuner monster, Shiranui Spectralsword!”

Appearing from the eerie mist was a spirit with purple hair tied back into a ponytail,  dressed in japanese style robes, and was carrying a sword that was glowing ghostly blue (ATK: 800 DEF: 0).

“I now tune my level 4 Shiranui Smith with my level 2 Shiranui Spectralsword!”

Just like the Speedroid pair, Spectralsword turned into two synchro rings with Smith becoming four stars as he went through them.

_“Proud blacksmith of ages past, infuse your knowledge with the spirits of the fallen and give rise to a new warrior! Synchro Summon! Level 6! Shiranui Samuraisaga!”_

From the burst of white light, a samurai appeared on Gallager’s field with the spirit of Spectralsword behind him as the new monster wield the tuner’s sword, ready for battle (ATK: 2500 DEF: 0).

“Since Shiranui Smith was sent to the graveyard as synchro material, I can add one Shiranui card from my deck to my hand.”

After doing just that, Gallager looked at the Conqueror’s field and actually grinned. _My Samuraisaga has 2500 ATK points while that freak’s Kendama only has 2200. This should be an easy knock out!_

“Go, my Samuraisaga! Attack Hi-Speedroid Kendama with Spiritual Sword Strike!”

The Conqueror watched as the Samurai changed at his machine as he pushed a button on his duel disk. “I activated my face down, Synchro Strike.”

His face down rose up, showing the image of Speed Warrior and Junk Synchron with a blue aura around them with Junk Warrior with a red aura in front of the two.

“A trap card?!” Gallager gasped in surprised. “How could this be?!”

“God, you’re an idiot.” Conqueror muttered under his breath as he pointed to Kendama. “Synchro Strike allows me to target a Synchro Monster on my field and it gains 500 ATK points for each Synchro Material monster used to summon it. Kendama had two materials so it gains 1000 ATK.”

As Samuraisaga went in for the killing blow, Kendama suddenly started glowing red as it attack increased (ATK: 2200-3200 DEF: 1600) before the Speedroid monster counterattacked striking through the Shiranui monster and destroying it and dealing Gallager 700 points of battle damage back at him.

**The Conqueror: 4000**

**Gallager: 2800**

The force of the backlash almost knocked Gallager off his feet. _This monster’s attacks are getting more real by the second!_ The Promoter thought in horror.

“Hurry up and end your turn already. “ The Conqueror suddenly said, almost sounding impatience. “I don’t have time to duel people who honestly have no idea what they are doing.”

Gallager’s eye twisted at that. “You little-I place a face down and end my turn.” He said as a face down appeared on his field before disappearing.

“At the end phase of your turn, Synchro Strike’s effect returns Kendama’s attack to normal.” Conqueror stated as his monster stopped glowing red as its attack returned to its base (ATK: 3200-2200 DEF: 1600).

The Conqueror then drew his card, glanced at it, before he placed it on his blade. “I summon Speedroid Ohajikid.”

A monster that looked like a tiny cowboy with a toy gun appeared (ATK: 1000 DEF: 200).

“When Ohajikid is summoned, I can target one tuner in your graveyard and use it and Ohajikid to Synchro Summon a Wind Synchro Monster.”

“What?!” Gallager exclaimed as he watched Spectralsword rise up from the grave onto the Conqueror’s field before it and Ohajikid flew into the air to become the synchro materials.

_"Lively soul of swordplay. Come forth now, Level 5! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"_

This synchro monster appeared to be a giant sword with a tiny warrior attached to it carrying his own pair of swords (ATK: 2000 DEF: 1000).

“Go Chanbara! Attack this vermin scum directly!” The Conqueror commanded. Chanbara did just that, heading straight towards Gallager. “Oh and when Chanbara battles, he gains 200 more ATK points.”

Hi-Speedroid Chanbara’s speed only seemed to increase when his attack did so (ATK: 2000-2200 DEF: 1000).

“I activate my trap, Negate Attack!” Gallager countered as his face down rose up, creating a shield around him that protected him from Chanbara’s attack. “This trap negates your attack and ends your battle phase.”

“Bastard, you are only delaying the inevitable.” The Conqueror snarled as his second synchro monster returned to his side of the field as he gestured to the first. “You may have saved yourself from battle damage, but have you forgetting about Kendama? By banishing Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice from my graveyard, Kendama can inflict 500 points of effect damage onto you instead.”

Once more, Kendama fired a blue beam from its sharp end at Gallager, causing him to actually scream this time as his life points drop once more.

**The Conqueror: 4000**

**Gallager: 2300**

“I end my turn with a face down.” The Conqueror said, watching coldy behind his mask as Gallager was struggling to keep himself standing. “Seriously? Is that all you can take? How pathetic. You Tops really can’t take much, can you? I can’t believe I actually wanted to be one of you life wasters at one point.”

Gallager gritted his teeth at that as he drew his card. “We’ll see who’s talking after I activate Shiranui Spectralsword’s effect. When this card is in the graveyard, I can banish it and Shiranui Samuraisaga to Synchro Summon.”

“A Synchro Summon from the graveyard?!” The Conqueror actually sounded surprised at that.

“That right, you demon. I tune my level 6 Shiranui Samuraisaga with my level 2 Shiranui Spectralsword!”

The ghostly fog around the field only seemed to get thicker as the spirits of the fallen rose up to perform one of their final deeds.

_“Wielder of the twin blades, commander of the spirits of the dead, arise now! Synchro Summon! Level 8! Shiranui Shogunsaga!”_

As the name suggested, this new Synchro Monster appeared as a shogun version of Spectralsword, carrying with him his phantom blade and a new flare sword to match (ATK: 3000 DEF: 0).

“Samuraisaga’s effect activates. When it is banished, monsters on your field lose 500 ATK points.”

The spirit of the fallen samurai appeared behind the Speedroid monsters, weakening them (ATK: 2200-1700 DEF: 1600) (ATK: 2200-1700 DEF: 1000).

“I activated my trap, Speedroid Shuriken Hurricane!” The Conqueror countered with one of his two face downs. “Once per turn, when the attack of monster(s) on my field changes, it inflicts damage onto you equal to that change. Kendama and Chanbara both lost 500 so you take 1000 points of damage!”

Two sets of shurikens shot out of the trap card and Gallager out right screamed bloody murder as they sliced into his leg arm and shoulder.

**The Conqueror: 4000**

**Gallager: 1300**

Fighting through the pain and blood that come out of his cuts, Gallager continued his turn. “I-I activated Shogunsaga’s effect. When it is special summoned, I can banish my Shiranui Smith from the graveyard to give its 1000 ATK to Shogunsaga-”

“I don’t think so. I active my second trap, Breakthrough Skill. This trap negates your monster’s effects until the end of this turn.”

“I was hoping you would do that.”

“What?!”

“I play the equip spell, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation! By discarding a card, I can target one of my banished monsters and special summon it in attack mode. Return from the afterlife once more, Shiranui Spectralsword!”

For the final time, the spirit of the fallen returned to the field.

“I now turn my level 8 Samuraisaga with my level 2 Spectralsword!”

_“Ruler of the holy flame, charge forth now upon the field of battle! Synchro Summon! Level 10! Shiranui Sovereginsaga!”_

Appearing from the afterlife in all flesh and bones was Spectralsword riding upon a phantom horse onto the field of battle (ATK: 3500 DEF: 0).

“Shit,” The Conqueror cursed, realizing too late that he had fallen for Gallager’s trap.

“Sovereignsaga’s effect activates when it is Synchro Summoned. By returning Samuraisaga and Shogunsaga back into my Extra Deck, I can destroy both of your Speedroid monsters!”

“What?!” The Conqueror sounded surprised at that as the spirits of the fallen Shiranui rose up from the dead and dragged Kendama and Chanbara to the depths of hell, leaving their master completely defenseless.

“Since I don’t have any Speedroid monsters on my field, Speedroid Shuriken Hurricane is destroyed.” Conqueror stated not to happily. If anything, he sounded more pissed by the second. “And since Chanbara was destroyed, I can take one of my banished Speedroid monsters and return it to my hand. I chose Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice.” He said, showing said monster before adding it back into his hand.

Gallager was now grinning from ear to ear. He might just be able to save himself and take this demon down! “With both of your Synchro Monsters gone, Shiranui Sovereignsaga now attacks your life points directly!”

The Conqueror did nothing but let out curses after curses as the ghostly horse charged right through him, taking out almost all of his life points in one go.

**The Conqueror: 500**

**Gallager: 1300**

Gallager, as soon as that attacked connected, started laughing like a maniac. “I should have know you were just all talk, Conqueror! Oh no, that not even fitting anymore, is it?!” He continued to laugh as he signaled the end of this turn.

If Gallager was smart, he would have stopped laughing as soon as he noticed the dark aura around the Conqueror.

“You know, you are really starting to get on my last nerves, Promoter.” The Conqueror spoke as he drew his card, not that it matter much to him whatever it was. “Since I have no cards on my field, I can special summon Hi-Speedroid Kendama back from the graveyard.”

“What?” Gallager stopped his train of laughter as the Synchro Monster reappeared on the field like it was nothing to it.

“Now, I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice.” The six sided yellow dice appeared next to the Synchro Speedroid.

“You should have ran when you had the chance, scum, since now you have to deal with the full fury of my deck!”

As soon as he said that, his duel disk seemed to let out a terrifying roar once more.

“I turn my level 6 Hi-Speedroid Kendama with my level 1 Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!”

_“Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings, and strike down your enemies at the speed of light! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 7! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"_

The dragon was nothing short of the word beautiful with its see through clear wings and white coloring. However, anything that embodied the world beautiful always had a darker side to it as the dragon let out a terrifying roar that was not only the exact same cry as the one that the Conqueror’s duel disk just let out but, if not trapped by the invisible chain, would have sent Gallager running for the hills of garbage (AT: 2500 DEF: 2000).

“I-Impressive beast but there’s no way that it can beat my Sovereignsaga.” Gallager stated, trying to keep his composure.

“I activate the spell, Hi-Speed Re-Level.”  The aura around the Conqueror only seemed to get darker as he placed the spell into his disk duel. “By banishing Hi-Speedroid Kendama, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon’s level becomes the level of Kendama-”

“And what is that supposed to do for you?”

“-and gains ATK equal to Kendama’s level times 500.”

“Wait…Kendama is a level 6 and times by 500 would mean…” Gallager’s eyes widen.

“3000 ATK points,” the Conqueror finished as his dragon let out a mighty roar as its points went up dramatically (ATK: 2500-5500 DEF: 2000).

“5-5500 ATK points?!” Gallager’s eyes looked like they were able to burst out of his sockets in horror.

Turquoise eyes glared at Gallager behind the mask. “This is the end for you, you bastard. But don’t worry, your sacrifice is going towards a good cause, restoring _us_ to our true form! Go Clear Wing Synchro Dragon! Attack Sovereginsage!”

Clear Wing launched itself into the air as its four beautiful wings started glowing as it spiraled down at the Zombie Monster.

“Helldive Whirlwind Slasher!”

The Conqueror must have unhooked the chain without him noticing because as soon as that attack connected, Gallager was sent flying back into a pillar of trash, barely conscious.

**The Conqueror: 500**

**Gallager: 0**

“How annoying and here I thought I wouldn’t have to use Clear Wing while I was down here.” The Conqueror mused to himself as his dragon disappeared from the field as he walked over to the Gallager.

What followed next was a scream that even the people above ground could hear echoing from down below.

…

Silence fell over the Underground Labor Facility after that. Having carded everyone down here, the Conqueror now sat on top of a pill of garbage, looking down at the whole facility like he was the king of it.

Letting out a sigh, the Conqueror took off his mask to stare down at it. With it out of the way, his duel colored hair, dark blue with yellow bangs, were now poking out from underneath his hooded robe.

“What a waste,” He grumbled to himself, running a finger over the details of the mask. “All of that for nothing.”

“Oh, you don’t like being the Trash King, _Yūgō?”_

The Conqueror’s eyes widen at the sound of that voice before a low growl was heard as he spun around. “It’s Yugo, you bastard! Get it right for once, Yur-”

Yugo cut himself off when he saw who was actually standing there. Dual color hair of crimson on the bottom and green on the top, dressed in a red robe similar to Yugo’s white one, and a face that was all too familiar to look at expect with mischievous crimson eyes, it wasn’t that _bastard,_ it was-

“Yuya…” Yugo mumbled at seeing his Standard Counterpart.

“In the flesh!” Yuya replied in a childish tone with a smile and a bow. “Did you miss me, Yugo?”

Yugo didn’t reply to that. Instead, he pointed a finger at the other in a accusing way. “You know I hate when you do that!”

“Do what?” Yuya tilted his head to the side, innocently.

“Don’t play dumb, Yuya! You don’t know how annoying it is hearing that bastard’s voice!”

“Oh come on, _Yūgō.”_ Yuya did it again, much to Yugo’s annoying. “I’m just having a bit of fun with you. Why do you always have to be such a spoiled sport?”

“Yuya-”

“Anyway,” Yuya clapped his hands together, cutting Yugo off before he could start on another one of his rants. “Did you finish the job I so kinda asked you to do for us?”

Yugo looked like he was about to say something to that but he instead just let out a long sigh to calm himself down as he held up his duel disk to show to the other. “I had Clear Wing absorb all the prisoner’s life force just like you asked.”

“Splendid!” Yuya exclaimed happily as he hopped on over and petted Yugo on the head like he was praising a child who did a good job or a dog who just brought back a stick after it was told to fetch it. “I’m sure Clear Wing must be full after such a big meal! Nice job, Yugo! We are one step closer to filling our dream of reviving!”

“Not really.” Yugo replied bitterly.

“Hmm?”

“Yuya, I don’t know why you keep sending us to these kinds of places! They are filled with nothing but weak duelists who are nothing but an appetizer for us!” Yugo then pointed to the ceiling. “Up there is where the real fun is but you are to scared to let not just Clear Wing and me but all of us out to play! Why?! Why do you continue to deny us the chance to let the world know that we have returned?!”

“Scared?” Yuya spoke that word like it was foreign language to him. “Hmmm…” He hummed to himself as he slide down from the top of the garage pill to stand on solid ground, his back facing the Synchro Duelist.  “Hmmm...I suppose you do have a point, Yugo. I guess it has been long enough...and you are not the only one that is _starving_ for a good battle.”

Yugo blinked at those words, not actually thinking Yuya would considering them. “Wait do you mean…?”

“Uh huh,” Yuya agreed as he spun around to face his Synchro Counterpart, his crimson eyes now glowing a terrifying shade of red and with an equal terrifying smile crossing his face.

“I think it is time to show the Four Dimensions our brand of entertainment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehe...so...how many people are going to yell at me for what I did to Yugo and Yuya? XD There are reasons why they are kinda...messed up to put it lightly. Yuya has more reasons but I'll get to that in later chapters. As for Yugo...well, you can blame Yuya for that and blame Yuya's state of mind on Leo, Zarc, and Yuri for different reasons. Oh and speaking of Yuri and Yuto...yeah...Yuri is basically the same and as for Yuto...I'll get to him in chapter 3. Next chapter focuses on Yuya and boy, that is not going to end well.
> 
> So yeah, besides destroying everything you guys knew and loved about these boys, what do you think? I love to hear your thoughts about this messed up world that I have created because trust me, it is going to get worse. No Egao is happening anytime soon if I have anything to say about it. Yes, I know I'm evil :)


	2. War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, I did not expect so much feedback. 31 Kudos just from the first chapter. Holy crap 0-0 Like I'm just looking at these statistic in amazement. Thank you all for being so kind to me even though I'm going to end up breaking your hearts later! 
> 
> Oh and for those of you that commented about my spelling. Again, I'm sorry about some of my spelling mistakes. I'm trying the best I can. Like I said, I'm not the best speller in the world and sometimes I miss them when I'm editing so please forgive me. Regardless, thank you for saying something.
> 
> Anyway, onto the chapter itself...oh boy *laughs nervously* So this chapter focuses on Yuya...and...that's all that needs to be said. Blame the idiot that this story was named after, Yucifer, and Prince Lily for what you are about to read. I am not sorry.

“Yuzu, is the table all set?!”

“Almost dad!”

Hiragi Yuzu hummed to herself as she finished placing all the utensils in their proper places with a clipboard in hand. “Let’s see...tablecloth check, plates check, chopsticks check…” She continued to check off one item after another and once everything was accounted for, she smiled. “All set, dad!”

“Great!” Hiragi Shuzo came around the corner, carrying a tray of food that he personally cooked and set it down on the table. 

Yuzu closed her eyes as she took in the smell of the fleshly cook meal. “Mmmm, everything looks so good this year, dad!”

“I do learn from my mistakes, Yuzu!” Shuzo said proudly.

As soon as he said that, the fire alarm went off in the kitchen.

Instead of looking panicked, Yuzu dropped her clipboard on table and looked at her father in disbelieve while Shuzo looked like he was trying to turn into a mouse and find a hole to hide in.

“Dad, you didn’t happen to leave the shove on again, did you?”

Shuzo didn’t answer. He just quickly ran to the kitchen to put out the fire before Yuzu could pull her fan out of nowhere and smack him.

Yuzu sighed at this. Truly she loved her father but common sense wasn’t one of his strong points, especially when it came to big events like these that had his mind all over the place.

_ Event... _ Yuzu quickly shook her head at the term as she went to turn the fire alarm off. No, that made it sound like a casual party. No, this was something bigger than a simple get together.

It was a memorial for her closest friend, Sakaki Yuya.

Three years ago, he simply disappeared from the face of the earth. At least, that what Yuzu wanted to believe. When Sakaki Yoko made a police report that Yuya didn’t come home from school that day, the police began searching the city from top to bottom but all they could find was his backpack, just thrown to the ground carelessly on the sidewalk he normally used to get home. No one could believe it. Yuya kidnapped? That was impossible to think about. Miami City was so peaceful and everyone so nice but the facts were as clear as day, even to Yuzu who was still quite young herself when this all first happened.

But the one that was really in denial was Sakaki Yusho, Yuya’s father. Even when the police finally gave up on their search for Yuya, Yusho never stopped trying. He continued to look, following any lead he could until he suddenly disappeared as well, many believing to this day that he did find something out about Yuya’s whereabouts that he shouldn’t have and it costed him.

Yoko was left alone after that. She put up a strong front but deep down, she was hurting a lot. Losing her son and her husband shortly after, not knowing if they were dead or not, was destroying her more and more as each day passed. Shuzo noticed this right away. After all, he was grieving too at the lose of his best friend and the child he considered as his own nephew. That’s when he came up with this idea, a gathering of the three of them, to sit and have dinner together, to talk about their fond memories of the two Sakaki boys they all held so dear to them. However, in reality, it always came back to Yuya the most. Yoko refused to believe either of her boys were dead, mostly Yusho since she knew for a fact that her man could take care of himself, but Yuya? He was just a little kid. His body was never found so there was still hope but if that was the case and he was still alive, what has been happening to him for all these years?

Yuzu shook her head at that thought.  _ No, don’t think about those things, Yuzu!  _ She scolded herself.  _ This is a time to talk about the good things, not think about the bad! Expectedly that one fact... _

That’s when she heard a knock on the door. Yuzu quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she went to answer it. 

She opened her front door to find Yoko standing there in her casual attire with her usual smile on her face. In her hands, she was carrying her share of the food she offered to bring over. Shuzo keeps insisting that he made more than enough but Yoko just wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

“Evening Yoko-san,” Yuzu greeted with her own smile.

“And a good evening to you too, Yuzu-chan.” Yoko replied back as Yuzu held the door up to let her in. “And where is Shuzo at the moment?”

“Right here, Yoko!”

Shuzo poked his head out from behind the kitchen door, his face covered in smoke and ashes. 

“Just putting some finishing touches on the dessert!”

“You left the shove on again, didn’t you?”

“Uh...oh would you look at the time! Shall we get this hot blooded dinner started already?”

…

Shuzo wasn’t kidding when he said it was going to be a hot blooded dinner. While they all smelled amazing and looked pretty fine to eat, all the food that he cooked was way too hot to eat so they had to spend the first half of their dinner eating Yoko’s share of the meal.

“Delicious!” Yuzu exclaimed after taking a bit of one of the sandwitches Yoko made.

“Yoko, you are truly a goddess of the art of cooking!” 

“Why thank you, Shuzo, but that honor doesn’t belong to me. I just followed one of Michio-kun’s famous recipes! He’s a prodigy!”

“Well whoever this kid is, I sure hope my Yuzu meets him! That’s husband material right there!”

“Dad!”

“Now that you mention it, I think one of his cooking shows should be airing at this time! Shuzo, do you mind?”

“Not at all! I would like to see this prodigy for myself and plus,” Shuzo nervously glanced at his kitchen, “I could use the pointers. Yuzu, can you switch the TV on for us?”

“If it means I don’t have to be forced into an arranged marriage,” Yuzu replied as she pushed herself out of her chair and made her way over to the television. 

_ I guessed they don’t want to bring up Yuya so soon into the dinner.  _ Yuzu couldn’t blame them. As soon as they start bringing up Yuya’s name, it just ends up with all of them crying for the first ten minutes of the meal. So she simply picked up the remote and switched it on.

_ “And now, it’s time for the main event!” _

Yuzu blinked in surprise at what was being shown on the default channel. 

“Oh right, that championship match sponsored by the Leo Corporation is happening today. I totally forgot about it due to our plans.” Shuzo laughed nervously. “Sorry Yoko, but-”

Yoko giggled in return. “Oh it is fine, Shuzo. Cooking shows come and go but championship matches only happen so often.” She turned to face the TV. “Besides, I want to see who is facing off against Strong Ishijima myself.”

_ “That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, we finally crowned a winner of our LDS Competition! After a month of duelists battling each other for the grand prize, a winner had been chosen of having the honor to duel against our reigning champion, Strong Ishijima!” _

_ This is interesting. I wonder who is the winner?  _ Yuzu wondered as the crowd went wild. 

_ “But before we announce our lucky duelist, let’s reveal our field of battle for this special match! Action Field on! Frontier Fang Castle activate!” _

Watching this event from home certainly didn’t do the field justice, Yuzu thought, watching as the solid vision turned the simple field into that of a wide scale forest with a giant castle right in the middle of it surrounded by a pool of water. 

_ “Amazing, isn’t it, folks?! This is the power of Solid Vision created by the Leo Corporation! And look! At the top of the castle! There he is! The Ultimate King of Action Dueling! The Champion for three years in a roll! You know him! You love him! Give it up for the man, Strong Ishijima!” _

The camera zoomed in to show everyone at home the champion, Strong Ishijima, standing on top of the castle as king. He let out a powerful battle cry and the crowd went crazy once more. 

_ “And now the moment you all have been waiting for! Our challenger! Our winner of the LDS Competition and the one to be facing off against the Ultimate King is-” _

_ “I do my own introductions, thank you.” _

“Huh?” Yuzu watched as someone walked up to the action field. He wore a hooded red robe and a red dragon’s mask that completely kept his identity hidden to the audience.

“Wow, he sure went all out for this.” Shuzo mused.

The clothed figure stopped and stood in place once he was on the action field and activated his duel disk. Yuzu was shocked to see how different it was from normal models, a crimson dragon’s head with heterochromia eyes of red and green with the blade being a yellow claw, each of the monster card zones being a different nail. 

_ “Now, shall we begin, cham-pi-on?”  _ The unknown duelist asked childishly, looking up at the champion behind his mask. 

The crowd had been silent for awhile, not knowing what to make of this duelist. However all heads turned to Strong at the question who appeared to be trying to make his own sense of this character.

_ “Wha-just who the hell do you think you are, kid?!”  _ The champion yelled down at him from his place up top of his castle.  _ “What kind of person shows up hiding behind a mask?! Are you scared?!” _

_ “Scared?”  _ He laughed. He laughed so hard and long at the simple question that it was almost terrifying, Yuzu thought.  _ “Oh no! I’m not scared!” _ He replied in a cheerful matter.  _ “Wearing a mask makes this all the more entertaining! Trying to guess who's behind the mask is the best part about a performance! But...I suppose you wouldn’t know who I was even without the mask on anyway and I did agree with my brother that I would let the world know that we have returned so I’ll enlighten you a bit. You can call me Mars if you wish, after the God of War himself, while some of you might know me by a different name. Nonetheless, I am the second Horseman, cloaked in the blood of my enemies, and I will be your opponent, cham-pi-on.”  _

The mysterious duelist, Mars as he called himself, reached up and took off his mask. As soon as he lowered it and his face was in view, Yuzu felt like she was just punched in the throat at who she saw underneath. 

“No way…”

Apparently she wasn’t the only one that was having everything coming back to her at once. Barely looking behind her, she saw Yoko stand up from the table in a mix between shock and relief and her own father with his jaw dropped.

“It can’t be…” He mumbled.

Yuzu looked back at the TV fully as the duelist raised his head up to show the world his face. Most of them looked shocked too while others looked confused. As for Yuzu, she could feel tears running down her face at the familiar sight.

“Yuya…”

…

_ Just what was going on around here?  _ Nico Smiley wondered to himself, trying to keep calm and act like this was all planned out for the audience’s sake.  _ This wasn’t who was supposed to be dueling Strong! _

He remembered the other day as he watched LDS crown their tournament winner. He congratulated him full heartedly before he gave him a run down of how his entrance was supposed to be like.

This was not the same person, not by a long shot.

“Oh that guy canceled at the last second. I’m his understudy.”

Nico almost fell off the field from surprised as Mars turned to him without him even noticing and spoke to him like he just read his mind.

“Canceled…?”

“Yep!” He smiled at that, bouncing on his heels like an excited child as he played with the blue pendulum that was around his neck. “He wasn’t feeling up to it after my friends ripped off his arms and legs-”

“Ripped off his arms and legs-?!”

“-but as the saying goes, the show must go on!” Yuya’s red eyes gleamed with excitement as he looked like to was about to say something else but he paused as he placed a finger to lips in wonder. “Oh I’m sorry. I’m a bit rusty when it comes to Action Duels. What was the chant again?”

He had this look on his face like if Nico didn’t answer him, he would make him in the most  _ innocent  _ way possible and Nico decided that he didn’t want to test his luck with someone that chose to be named after the Roman God of War, even if he was a simple teenager by appearance.

“Um... _ Duelists locked in battle! Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!-” _

“Oh that’s right! I remember now!” Yuya cut him off as he turned to face Strong. “ _ They storm through this field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!” _

_ “ACTION…” _

_ “DUEL!” _

**Yuya: 4000**

**Strong: 4000**

The action cards scattered throughout the battlefield, unnoticed to Yuya who was hopping like a bunny rabbit from excitement. 

“You have some nerve, kid, showing up out of nowhere to challenge the Champion like that. Do you have some kind of death wish?” Strong asked, his face showing up on Yuya’s duel disk for them to communicate.

“Death wish?” Yuya covered his mouth, trying to keep himself from laughing. “You know, you are a real funny guy! I haven’t laughed like this for a long time! As a token of my appreciation, I won’t destroy your pathetic mortal soul right away! Instead, I’ll entertain you and the crowd for a bit longer! So to start this performance off, I summon Odd-Eyes Griffin in attack mode!”

As soon as Yuya placed the card onto his duel disk, he jumped into the air, way higher than humanly possible. In seconds, gravity took effect and he started falling. The crowd gasped in horror while Nico out right screamed, thinking the boy might have just somehow killed himself.

“No need to worry folks!” Yuya yelled out, seconds from hitting the ground and he would have to if it wasn’t for his monster shooting across the sky and catching Yuya on his back. 

As the name suggested, this monster was a griffin, a legendary creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion and a head, wings and front talons of an eagle, with brown orange fur and dark red feathers. It had a red right eye and a green left eye and its underbelly had the Odd-Eyes crest, containing the blue orb with its tail having a green orb at the end of it (ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400).

“As you can see, my Griffin friend here would never let me fall to my death! We do try to keep the first half of our shows G rated for the kids after all!” Yuya spoke to the crowd, now sitting on his monster’s back while scratching behind its’ ear. “Now, I would love to show you all more of what my amazing Griffin friend here can do but sadly, we can’t attack on our first turn.” Yuya frowned at that as he held up a card. “So I’ll just end the first half of our performance with a face down. You are up,  _ cham-pi-on.”  _ He finished, looking down at Strong from the top of his monster in the air with a smile. 

“What an amazing show of events!” Nico announced to the crowd, who were now cheering for the amazing catch that Yuya’s Griffin performed. While he himself was still wondering what was going on with this new duelist, he still had his job to do. “Mars is already getting the crowd riled up and he haven’t even attacked yet!”

On the other hand, Strong looked to be getting annoyed rather quickly, gritting his teeth at Yuya’s comment. “Are you taunting me, kid?”

“May-be.” Yuya replied innocently. 

“Well let’s see how long you can keep that smile on your face for! I activate the spell card, Feast of the Wild LV5! This card allows me to special summon two level 5 Warrior Type monsters from my hand without tribute! Appear on the field now! Swamp Battleguard and Lava Battleguard!”

Two barbarian like creatures appeared on the field, one the color of the swamp and the other the color of lava (ATK: 1800 DEF: 1500) (ATK: 1550 DEF: 1800).

“Using these two monsters, I tribute them to summon an even stronger brute! Come forth, Battleguard King!”

The two Battleguard monsters turned into dust as their combined strengths came together to unleash an even bigger monster. This new monster was huge with red skin, glowing yellow eyes, and carrying a giant hammer to lay down the smack down on someone (ATK: 3000 DEF: 1100).

“There it is folks!” Nico announced from the sidelines. “The champion's ace monster has finally graced us with its presences!”

“Ace huh? Hmmm...” Yuya looked down at the monster from up above and let out a long sigh. 

“What are you sighing about?!” Strong demanded.

“Oh nothing, I was just hoping for a challenge. Having a tribute monster as your ace is really pathetic and sad if you think about it. But what should I expect from a pathetic  _ cham-pi-on _ .”

Strong looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel from that comment. “Why you cocky little-I show you who is the pathetic one around here! Battleguard King, attack that brat’s Odd-Eyes Griffin!”

The fearsome monster let out a battle cry as it raised its hammer and took a swing at the monster in the air. 

“Wow, you’re even more short tempered then Yugo but just as dense to easily fall for a trap.” Yuya smiled as he hopped off his griffin and landed on top of one of the trees with ease. “I activate my trap, Wings of Misdirection!” 

His face down rose up, revealing a single white feather and once activated, it unleashed even more feathers onto the field. 

“Since I control only one monster on my field and no other spells and traps, Wings of Misdirection gives Odd-Eyes Griffin 800 more ATK points.”

Odd-Eyes Griffin let out a roar as the feathers attached themselves to the griffin’s wings, causing not only for the winged-beast’s attack to increase but also made its own wings bigger (ATK: 1600-2400 DEF: 1400).

“And what was the point of that?” Strong questioned. “Battleguard King is still stronger.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. When Odd-Eyes Griffin battles, he gains 600 ATK points until the end of the battle phase.” Yuya added sheepishly as his griffin’s attack went up once more (ATK: 2400-3000 DEF: 1400). 

“3000 ATK Points?!” Strong looked at Yuya like he was insane. “But they will just destroy each other!”

“As the saying goes, if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.” Yuya replied as his heterochromia beast unsheathed his claws and counterattacked as the King slammed its hammer into the griffin’s side.

Smoke covered the field from the attack, not showing what happened to the two monsters but all the people in the stand assumed they destroyed each other. However that was proven false because as soon as the smoke cleared, Battleguard King was still standing.

**Yuya: 3400**

**Strong: 4000**

“Huh?” Yuya looked down at his touch screen that made up his dragon head duel disk. He tilted this head to the side in confusion. “Why is your monster still standing and why did I lose life points?”

“That’s because I activated the action card, Assault. It increased my Battleguard King’s attack by 600 more points, allowing it to beat your Griffin and send it flying.” Strong answered.

“Incredible!” Nico exclaimed. “Just when you think the battle was going to end in a draw, our beloved champion saved his monster and took down Mars’s at the same time with an action card!”

“Action card?” Yuya looked confused before he smacked himself in the head. “Oh that’s right! I totally forgot about action cards!” He laughed to himself, holding his stomach. “Wow, I’m really out of practice! If I just used an action card, I wouldn’t had to use my Griffin as a suicide bomber! Thanks for the tip,  _ cham-pi-on _ !”

Yuya jumped down from the tree from branch to branch, picking up an action card along the way. Once he hit solid ground, he activated it. “I activate the action card, Quick Guard! This switches your Battleguard King to defense mode! No more attacking for you, big guy.” 

Strong gritted his teeth at that as his 3000 ATK point monster was forced into DEF mode with only 1100. “I play a card face down.” He said, signaling the end of his turn. 

“Yay! Now it’s my turn again!” Yuya cheered as he drew his card. “Well  _ cham-pi-on,  _ you already took down one of my feathered friends but can you take down another? Take to the skies, Odd-Eyes Hippogriff!”

“Another griffin?” Strong questioned, watching as something shot into the sky.

“No silly, a hippogriff!” Yuya pointed to the sky where the beast flew. This creature was beautiful, having the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse, with silver feathers, gray fur, the Odd-Eyes crest on its underbelly similar to Griffin, and mismatched eyes of blue on the right and green on the left (ATK: 800 DEF: 1200).

“Now folks, my hippogriff and I are going to perform an amazing trick for you all today!” Yuya announced as his new creature lowered itself to the ground for him to get on it. “I like to call this: let’s send the big ugly guy away!”

“And how exactly do you plan to do that? You might have forced him into defense but Battleguard King still has more DEF point than your hippogriff’s ATK.” Strong pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter how much defense you have! You could have 10000 defense points and hippogriff would still be able to beat your ugly piece of work!” Yuya told him as his hippogriff flew him to the top of Strong’s castle.

“What?!”

“Odd-Eyes Hippogriff’s effect!” Once directly above it, Yuya hopped off his monster to stand directly across from Strong now on the battlefield.  “When it battles a monster in defense mode, it is shuffled right back into your deck and then you take damage equal that monster’s original DEF points!”

The stand gasped in surprise at the statement. 

“Did you hear that?! Without having to do anything, our champion's ace monster will simply be sent back into his deck with him taking damage for it if he doesn’t stop this attack!”

The dual colored monster let out a bird cry as it launched down from the sky, its talons out and ready to throw Battleguard King right back into Strong’s deck.

Strong cursed. “I activate my trap, Battleguard Howling. When a Battleguard monster is targeted for an attack, I can target one face up monster on your field, send it back to your hand, and then you take damage equal to its original ATK points!”  
“Hey! That’s not fair! You just did what I was planning to do to you!” Yuya complained as his Hippogriff was blown back into his hand with him taking 800 points of damage along with it.

**Yuya: 2600**

**Strong: 4000**

“Life isn’t fair, kid.” Strong replied. “Now hurry up and end your turn. There is nothing else you can do.”

Yuya pouted as he took a card from his hand and placed it face down to end his turn. “You are so mean to me,  _ cham-pi-on.” _

“Shut it, you brat.” Strong drew his card. “I switch Battleguard King back into attack mode.” 

The fearsome behemoth let out a roar as it stood back up. 

“And with no monsters on your field, I attack you directly! This is the end for you!”

“With Mars’s life points only at 2600 and Battleguard King having an attack of 3000, if this attack connects, it is all over!” Nico spoke letting out a silent sigh of relief. “Is this the end for our challenger?!”   
“Yeah...no.” Yuya snapped his fingers causing his face down to rise up. “I play my trap, Blind Eye. By sending an Odd-Eyes monster from my hand to the graveyard, I can cut the damage I take from your attack by that monster’s attack points.” Yuya held up his Odd-Eyes Hippogriff. “I send my feathered friend to the graveyard to weaken your attack by 800 points.”

Yuya used his robe as a shield to defend himself as Battleguard King smacked him down with its hammer from down below. 

**Yuya: 400**

**Strong: 4000**

Strong looked annoyed but regardless, he was impressed that this brat was able to hang on for so long. “No matter, on my next turn, I will beat you. I play a face down, turn end.”

“Oh that’s cute. You think you are going to win.” Yuya brushed the dirt off his robe before he drew his card. At noticing what it was, a twisted smile form on his face that went unnoticed.

“You must forgive me,  _ cham-pi-on,  _ I haven’t done a very good job of entertaining you or the crowd, have I?” Yuya shook his head, closing his eyes as he placed a hand over his heart. “And I must apologize to you, Lord Zarc. You expect more out of me and I’m disappointing you, aren’t I?”

_ Who the hell is this kid talking to?  _ Strong wondered, starting to think this kid really was insane before his eyes widen when Yuya reopened his own eyes to look at him.

They were cold as ice, glowing crimson red with a taint of madness to them.

“ **Allow me to make this up to you the best way I know how.”**

Yuya’s psycho smile widen as he held up a card.  “I play the spell card, Scaling Rebirth. This card allows me to take two Pendulum Monsters, one from my Extra Deck and one from my Graveyard, and use them to set the Pendulum Scale.”

“Pendulum Scale?!”

“Oh that’s right. You don’t know about Pendulum Monsters, do you?” Yuya laughed darkly as he took his monsters and added them back to his hand before he showed them to Strong. Strong’s eyes widen once more, noticing how they were different from normal Effect Monsters. Yes, the top were orange just like how they normally should be but the bottom half of their cards were green like Spells. 

“Now for the main event! Using the Scale 3 Odd-Eyes Griffin and Scale 8 Odd-Eyes Hippogriff, I set the Pendulum Scale!”

Two pillars of blue light appeared with the two monsters floating up each one respectively until they were at the top. Between them was Yuya’s blue Pendulum, swinging back and forth between them as their scales, 3 for Griffin and 8 for Hippogriff, showed up underneath them.

“I’m now able to summon monsters from levels 4-7 at the same time!”

“Just what is going on right now?!” Nico Smiley wondered out loud horrified and amazed all at the same time. 

_ “Swing, pendulum of souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Appear now! My dragon avatar!” _

A beam of blue light shot down from a circle the Pendulum created.  Appearing from it was a fearsome red dragon with heterochromia eyes and a terrifying roar that shook the whole stadium. 

“Let’s give a warm welcome everyone to Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!”

“Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon…” Strong mumbled looking up at the dragon with dual colored eyes before he checked his duel disk (ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000). 

“Only 2500 ATK points huh? Your dragon is impressive, boy, but there’s no way it is going to take down my Battleguard King!”

Yuya’s twisted smile seemed to disappear at that as he instead smiled innocently at that statement. 

**“Is that a fact now?”**

As quickly as it disappeared, his devil smile returned as he gestured to Odd-Eyes Griffin and Odd-Eyes Hippogriff in his Pendulum Zones. 

“Odd-Eyes Griffin’s Pendulum Effect activates. When an Odd-Eyes monster is Pendulum Summoned, it gains 600 ATK points. This in turns triggers Odd-Eyes Hippogriff’s Pendulum Effect. When an Odd-Eye monster gains ATK, one of my opponent's monsters loses the same amount of attack that is gained.”

Both of the Winged Beast let out fearsome bird cries, flapping their wings as they changed the attack of both monsters on the field (ATK: 2500-3100 DEF: 2000) (ATK: 3000-2400 DEF: 1100).

“Now Odd-Eyes is strong then Battleguard King.” Someone in the crowd spoke.

“Knowing the champion, it won’t be like that for long.” Someone else countered.

“I play my trap, Battleguard Rage!” Strong countered. “This trap gives my Battleguard King 1000 more ATK points.”

Once more, the points of the Battleguard King changed, this time giving it the advantage (ATK: 2400-3400 DEF: 1100).

“Still fighting huh?” Yuya shook his head. “I give you points for trying but your attempts to fight back are useless.” A card shot out of Yuya’s graveyard slot. He picked it up, along with his Odd-Eyes monsters that were set as scales. “I activate Wings of Misdirection from my graveyard. By banishing it, along with two cards that I control, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon gains 800 more attack points and all effects and activations of cards you control are negated.”

“What?!” Strong was shocked beyond belief as his trap was negated right before his eyes, causing his Battleguard King to weaken once more and for Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to grow stronger (ATK: 3100-3900 DEF: 2000) (ATK: 3400-2400 DEF: 1100).

“Fine, destroy my monster! All I will be taking is 1500 points of damage! That’s not even close to enough damage to defeat me!” The champion proclaimed.  

“Hmmm?” Yuya looked down at his life point counter and noticed that he was right. “Oh silly me! I almost forgot! Thanks for reminding me,  _ cham-pi-on!”  _ He held up a spell card and activated it. “I play Gap Power! Since your life points are higher than mine, a monster I control gains attack between the difference.” 

“Wait...my life points are 4000 and you only have 400 left...that means…” Strong’s eyes widen.

Yuya grinned evilly. “3600 ATK points.” (ATK: 3900-7500 DEF: 2000). 

“7500 ATK points?!” Strong gapsed in horror. “But that would mean…”

“You will take 4500 points of damage or you would normally if you weren’t fighting my precious Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.” Yuya patted his dragon’s side, affectively. “When it battles a level 5 or higher monster, the battle damage you take is doubled. So in reality, you are taking 9000 points of damage.”

Yuya waved with a smile. “So in a nutshell, you are about to die. Bye!”

What happened next seemed to happen in a flash. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon unleashed a powerful blast from its mouth, destroying Battleguard King in seconds with the backlash from the attack sending Strong Ishijima flying off the top of the tower. Strong was frozen in disbelief as all of this happened. As soon as he started falling, he looked up to see Yuya smirking down at him right before Odd-Eyes sent him crashing down to the ground with his tail.

**Yuya: 400**

**Strong: 0**

The action field disappeared as soon as his life points hit zero. The crowd was silent, Nico as well, as Yuya hummed to himself as he skipped happily over to Strong’s knocked out form.

“My, that was fun!” He said cheerfully as he held up his duel disk. “But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end!” 

He pushed a button on his duel disk that caused a red light to come out of it, concealing Strong’s body. Once it disappeared, Strong Ishijima was gone but in his place was a simple card.

“Thanks for being apart of the show.” Yuya spoke, picking up the card. As he placed it into a different compartment of his duel disk, he smiled as he looked at the crowd, who all looked horrified. “So, did you all enjoy the performance?!” He asked.

Silence. Nothing but silence. Yuya frowned at that, not so much in annoyance but almost sadly.

“You all didn’t enjoy my show?” He asked sadly. “Did I do something wrong?”

It was truly a puzzle to him until he remembered something. “Oh that right! How silly of me! I didn’t give you guys any fireworks, did I?! Sorry folks, I’ll quickly fix that!”

Yuya smiled as he snapped his finger and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon reappeared on the field. He never took it off, neither deactivated his duel disk after the duel ended. “Odd-Eyes, let’s give our lovely audience something to remember!” 

The dragon roared in agreement.

And just like that, it fired a beam into the stands.

“What in the-” Nico yelled as he was barely able to dodge the assault as the dual colored eyed dragon almost fired him out of a job, literally.  

People started screaming bloody murder as the heterochroma dragon kept unleashing beam after beam at the people as they tried to escape the stadium. Some were able to while others fell victim to the dragon’s overwhelming power. 

Yuya laughed as he clapped his hands together. 

“ **Now are you entertained?!”**

“Yuya!”

“Hmmm…” Yuya paused in his laughter at someone calling his name. He turned around and his smile quickly turned into a frown.

Pink hair tied in ponytails.

Those bright blue eyes filled with life. 

That  _ traitorous _ face…

“You…” Yuya snarled as his eyes started glowing in pure rage as Hiragi Yuzu made her way through the crowd of people trying to escape from the dragon’s wrath to get to her childhood friend.

Hiragi Yuzu, Ray’s Flower that abandoned him when he need her the most.

The simple action that lead him to his death at the hands of her father once again. 

“Well,” Yuya mused smiling darkly, “Isn’t this a  _ pleasant _ surprise. Don’t you think so too, Lord Zarc?” 

Odd-Eyes roared as something behind Yuya, something dark and evil with golden eyes, nodded in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *laughs nervously* Yeah...Yuya...he has problems. I was originally planning on giving Yuya some backstory in this chapter about why he is like this but I decided to save most of that for chapter four so yeah, I'm leaving you guys with a cliff hanger about what's going to happen between Yuya and Yuzu. Spoiler, it is not going to be pretty. 
> 
> Next chapter focuses on our third lovely horseman, Yuto! Don't worry, he's not crazy but he actually has a horse!   
> Next time, we are going to Heartland where hearts are going to be broken! The fun has just began! (yes I had to say it)


	3. Famine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to hell everyone! This time we have opened up the third door being famine, other wise known as Yuto! 
> 
> Oh boy, this chapter was a pain to write. Like the beginning was just painful for emotional reasons and then the duel turned into a nightmare. Seriously, I had to change up so many card effects/make new cards just to make it play out like it did. That's basically why this is a bit late since I do try to get a new chapter out on Saturdays but that might not always happen.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is just Fallenangelshipping overload. Like, I know the writers made that a forced thing at the last second but damn, it was adorable regardless. So I'm making it a thing and somehow while writing this, this ship has become my second favorite between the Yuu Boys and Bracelet Girls main four pairings, Appleshipping being the first still. 
> 
> So anything else I want to say? Yeah, Yuya, you can go straight to hell but I think you already did after the latest episode 0-0

_ “Phantom Knights?”  _

_ Kurosaki Ruri looked over Yuto’s deck in surprise. _

_ “Yeah,” Yuto scratched the back of his head, nervously. “When I was younger, I used to run archetypes that were made up of nothing but strong monsters but I couldn’t even use them as they keep on getting destroyed by spells and traps. So I then tried to play something that mainly used spells and traps but they kept on getting destroyed by cards like Harpie’s Feather Duster and Twin Twister before I could use them. I was in a bit of a mess after that, not knowing what to do. How was I supposed to win if all my cards kept on getting destroyed? That when I realized something. What if I wanted my opponent to destroy my cards?”  _

_ Yuto gestured to some of the cards in Ruri’s hands. “The Phantom Knights did just that. While they do have card effects that work like normal spells and traps, they also have secondary effects that they can use if they are in the graveyard, such as becoming monsters and resummoning themselves if they are destroyed. This way they never truly die. They just keep returning to the field of battle.” _

_ “As Phantom Knights.” Ruri laughed at that, now understanding why the archetype was named that. She placed the cards she was holding back into his deck and handed it back to Yuto. “Wow, I never thought about trying to duel like that. That is a nice strategy you got there, Yuto. Remind me to never destroy your backrow now if we ever duel.” _

_ “I don’t even think you would have to worry about my backrow honestly. Your deck would just fly right over them.” Yuto glanced back down at the cards he was holding from her deck. “Your Lyrical Luscinia deck is honestly scary. Get enough Overlay Units on your first turn and you could OTK me just like that.” He looked back over at her. “Did you make this all by yourself or did Shun help you?” _

_ “He tried but I told him to let me do this all on my own.” Ruri smiled as she looked up at the sky. “My big brother wouldn’t understand but I made my deck to have fun duels. Sure winning is great and all but I want everyone to have a good time. Flying free in the bright blue sky with songbirds are the kinds of duels I want to share with everyone so we all come out as winners in the end.” _

_ Yuto stared at her at that and Ruri could feel her face heating up from embarrassment. _

_ “Yeah...I know it sounds stupid...but…” _

_ “What? No!” Yuto quickly shook his head. “No, I don’t think it is stupid at all! You just took me by surprise is all.” _

_ Yuto smiled brightly at her. “I think it is great that you care about something more than winning. If everyone in the world thought the same way you did, I’m sure our world would be a better place.” _

_ Ruri sworn her face had to look like a bright red apple from that claim. “T-thank you, Yuto, you are to kind.” _

_ Yuto smiled at that before he suddenly got this look on this face as he remembered something. “Oh that’s right. I haven’t shown you my ace yet.” He reached into his pocket and took out a card and showed it to her. “I think you will like it.”  _

_ Ruri blinked at that as she tried to get her blush to fade away as she took the card from him and looked down at it.  _

_ “Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon?” _

_ It was a card that she never seen before, let alone heard about, but for some reason, it looked all too familiar. The artwork showed a fearsome black dragon with purple lightning in the background. It was terrifying, were Ruri’s first thoughts, not seeing how someone as sweet as Yuto could have such a- _

_ “Ouch!” Ruri yelped as she dropped the card all of the sudden, placing her finger in her mouth. _

_ Yuto looked alarmed. “Ruri, are you okay?” _

_ “I think so.” Ruri took her finger out of her mouth, looking down at it. “I think I just gave myself a papercut and it took me by surprise.” _

_ Yuto seemed to calm down at that but he still looked worried. “I see if the shopkeeper has any band-aids.  _

_ “Yuto, you don’t have to-” Ruri called but he was already gone. Ruri shook her head at that with a simple laugh. He was just like her brother, thinking that a simple cut was some kind of life threatening injury. _

Still that was weird.  _ Ruri thought, looking at her finger. She wasn’t running her finger on any of the edges of the card, let alone touching them, so how did she get a papercut? _

_ Ruri picked up Dark Rebellion’s card once more and study it. There wasn’t any blood on any of the edges, thankful she didn’t bleed on Yuto’s card, and the edges weren’t even sharp either. _

_ “Wait…” Ruri brought the card closer to her face when she noticed something off that wasn’t there the first time she held it. Dark Rebellion had sharp looking fangs on its artwork that looked ready to tear anything that faced it to pieces. When she first saw them, they were pure silver. _

_ They were now stained red. _

_ “What in the-?”  _

_ Ruri let out a scream as she dropped the card and fell out of her chair in surprise.  _

_ The scream and fall drew in some attention very quickly. Some people went over to Ruri, asking if she was alright but the teen was too busy shaking in horror to really hear them. _

_ No way… _

_ Did that card just electrocute her? _

_ Ruri was so shock that she didn’t even notice someone shaking her until he started yelling her name. _

_ “Ruri!” _

_ “Huh…?” Ruri shook her head, blinking her eyes a few times. _

_ “Ruri!” _

_ “Yuto?” _

“Ruri! Wake up!”

Ruri’s pink eyes snap out with a start, suprised to see a pair of golden yellow ones staring down at her with a worried expression.

“Brother?”

“Oh good, you are awake.” Kurosaki Shun let out a breath of relief he didn’t even realize he was holding.

Awake?

Wait...was she…?

“Brother...where are we?” Ruri asked, placing a hand on her forehead as she sat up slowly with her brother’s help.

Shun smiled sadly at her. “Heartland’s Duel Lodge.”

She looked at him in confusion. “Wait..why are we…?”

Ruri stopped herself as everything came rushing back to her all at once.

It all started out as a  _ normal _ day in the Resistance. The Spade Branch was planning out a defense strategy if Academia unleashed another attack. Shun was helping with the counterattack plan while Yuto and her were sitting off to the side. Well she was sitting off to the side by herself when Yuto came over to join her.

“What’s wrong?” Yuto asked her, taking a seat next to her on the floor.

“Nothing,” she answered. She had her legs pulled up to her chest, hugging them.

“Ruri, you are curled up into a fetal position.”

“Maybe I just like to hug myself.”

“Ruri…”

Ruri looked over at him. His grey eyes were looking at her with nothing but worry and she suddenly felt horrible.

“Sorry Yuto, I’m just worried that’s all.”

“We all are, Ruri. That’s why Shun and the others are making sure that this plan won’t result in too many casualties.”

_ Too many casualties.  _ The sad truth as there were always casualties on the field of battle. They could only hope for there not to be to many of them.

Ruri sighed at that as she relaxed her body before resting her head on Yuto’s shoulder. He used to blush like mad whenever she did this but now he simply wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to comfort her.

It was strange, the relationship they had. Before Heartland was attacked, maybe they were dating without it being established out right with words. Nowadays, he literally was a part of the Kurosaki family. She didn’t think of him as a second brother to her, maybe Shun did since they were best friends, but to her, if something should happen to him, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

“Yuto.”

“Hmmm?”

“Thanks you for being you.”

Ruri raised her head to look him directly in the eyes.

“Can you promise me that no matter what happens during this war that you will never change?”

Yuto blinked at her question before he smiled. 

_ “I promise.” _

Ruri smiled back at him. “Thank-”

And that’s when it happened. The already ruin walls of the Heartland Duel School were blown in on them. Some of the debris must have hit her in the head because the next thing Ruri knew, she was being carried by her brother with Yuto following behind, running from something. Everything was still spinning for her but she was able to make out her brother and Yuto speaking to each other.

“I’ll hold off the Obelisk Force while you get Ruri to a safe place.”

“Yuto, are you insane?! You can’t fight all of them by yourself!”

“You can’t fight them and guard Ruri at the same time either. It is either me or all three of us.”

“Then I’ll take on the Obelisk Force while you and Ruri get out of here!”

“I can’t ask you to do that, Shun. Ruri and you are brother and sister and I’m just some friend.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Yuto?! You are family to us!” 

“Shun, if I did what you ask me to do, I would never be able to look Ruri ever in the face again if I told her that her brother sacrificed himself so I could make it out alive.”

“You say that like I’m going to lose!”

“I don’t doubt your skills, Shun, but against five members of the Obelisk Force at once? No, that’s a death wise.” 

“Yuto-” 

“Shun, just go!”

Ruri could feel her brother’s arms tighten around her and after a moment of hesitant, he was running again but she didn’t hear Yuto’s footsteps behind him.

She must have blacken out again during that period and ended up dreaming about him.

_ Wait then that means… _

“Brother, where is Yuto?”

Shun wouldn’t meet her eye at that question. “You were having a nightmare, Ruri. I didn’t have a choice but to wake you up when you started screaming.”

He was avoiding her question. 

“Shun,” Ruri only called her brother by his first name when she was serious about something. “Where. Is. Yuto?” 

“I’m sorry, Ruri.” Shun’s voice sounded broken, still not meeting her gaze. “The Obelisk Force somehow found out about our Hideout and launched a surprise attack on us. Most of the Spade Branch were wipeout when the wall collapsed. The ones that were able to make it out were carded. You were knocked out when the wall came down so it was just Yuto and me left. We tried to escape but the Obelisk Force followed us and Yuto…” Shun didn’t finish. He didn’t need to. Ruri got the message loud and clear.

“No…”

She didn’t want to believe it. She was hoping that she was still dreaming or Shun was playing some kind of sick joke on her and Yuto would just suddenly appear laughing at her. But no, she knew her brother and Yuto to well. Even before the attacks, they wouldn’t play this kind of sick joke on her. 

The cruel reality of the situation finally sunk it and she started crying. She cried into her brother’s chest for the rest of the day and Shun, not knowing what else to do, comfort his little sister the best he could in his own grief at the lose of his best friend. 

…

“What do you mean there is no food left?!”

“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Well I know what exactly to tell you! My children are hungry!”

“We are all hungry, miss, but please calm down.”

“It is getting bad around here.” Kozuki Allen spoke, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching as his friend, Sasayama Sayaka, was trying her best to calm down the mob of hungry Heartland citizens. 

“That’s an understatement.” Shun spoke, watching with the younger boy as this mess unfold. “We are all starving and with Academia still out there, it is to risky to go searching for food for to long. Still if we don’t find some food and quick-”

“We will start to turn on each other.” Ruri finished for her brother and that was putting it lightly.  _ We will have to become cannibals to survive.  _ Was what she was really thinking.  _ Until Academia wipes us all out of existence...just like they did with Yuto… _

Ruri forced herself not to shed a tear thinking about her fallen friend, no family. She didn’t know how much time has past since they lost Yuto but it was long enough for the final line of the Resistance and people of Heartland to be running out of food if they haven’t already. 

“We have to do something, brother.” Ruri concluded and Shun nodded in agreement.

“I’ll go look for some food then. Allen, can you watch-”

Ruri glared at her brother at that. “Oh no, you are not pulling this crap again.”

Ever since Yuto’s death, Shun has been even more overprotective or his sister then ever. Ruri didn’t blame him for what happened to Yuto, she blamed herself more than anything, but he sure did.

“I told you, brother, we are sticking together always. Besides, I’m fourteen! I don’t need watching, especially by someone who is younger than me...uh no offense, Allen.”

“Oh none taken. I was just about to point that out to your idiot brother over here.”

Shun gave him a look that made Allen hide behind Ruri out of fright before he let out a long sigh. 

“Fine, you can come along but you are not to leave my sight. Understand?”

Knowing exactly what was out there waiting for them, Ruri wasn’t planning on it and nodded.

“Good. Allen, hold down the froth while we are gone and make sure that Sayaka doesn’t get killed by that mob of hungry people. Ruri and I-”

“I’m coming along with you two.”

Now that wasn’t something Ruri expected to hear, let alone coming from the infamous Tenjo Kaito. She looked over in surprise as the blonde stood up from the floor, carrying his little brother in his arms. Ever since Academia attacked, Kaito was never seen without his younger brother, Haruto, with him after their father was one of the first people to get carded. True, he cared about the rest of Heartland but family always came first to Kaito and his little brother meant the world to him. Ruri could relate to that feeling. 

“If you two are going out to find some food, you can count me in as well.” Kaito said in a tone like it wasn’t up for discussion. “If I join you guys, we will have more strength in members if Academia does try and attack us.” He stated.

_ That’s not the only reason you are coming.  _ Ruri looked over at Haruto. The poor kid looked so thin and pale. Haruto had always been a sickly kid and Academia's attacks only seems to make it worse. It was a wonder how this kid survived this long.

Shun must have been thinking the same thing as he always glanced at Haruto. “You know we can’t take him along, right?” He asked.

“I wasn’t planning on it.” Kaito replied as he looked at Allen. “Watch my little brother for me, please.”

“Like he was my own flesh and blood.” Allen nodded.

“Brother?” Haruto looked at his older sibling with worry expression. “Please don’t leave.”

Kaito smiled softly at him as he placed him on the ground. “Everything is going to be fine, Haruto. When we return, you will finally have something to eat.”

If only they knew what they were going to find when they get back, Ruri could only guess what Kaito’s parting words would have been instead.

…

Sakaki Yuya hummed to himself happily. He was sitting on the edge of a cliff with his legs hanging off the side, kicking up air like a child. In his hand was a box of strawberry pocky which he was currently snacking on.

“Mmmm, it is so peaceful out here!”

In the background, screams could be heard as a terrifying black dragon was busy tearing a group of Obelisk Force members to pieces.

“Yes, so peaceful!” He concluded as he took a pocky stick out of its box and started to nibble on it.

“You really are a sick kid, you know that right?”

Yuya smiled at that as he looked over his shoulder. “Takes one to know one, my lovely Spectral.”

“I suppose,” the black dragon disappeared with a hiss after someone had jumped off its back. Just like Yuya in his red robe, this figure was dressed in a black hooded robe, now strained with the blood of the Obelisk Force, with a black dragon’s mask hiding his face. “Only a demon can judge another demon.”

“Exactly!” Yuya beamed as he took another stick, placed one end in his mouth, and grinned over at Spectral. 

Even with the mask hiding his face from view, his expression was quite clear.

“I’m not playing the pocky game with you.”

Yuya frowned at that as he took a rather large bite out of the stick in annoyance. “You are no fun. Lily and  Yūgō would have said yes.”

“They find your childish games amusing. I don’t.”

“Buzz kill,” Yuya pouted as he turned to look back at the ruins of Heartland City down below.

“What are you even doing here, Yuya?” Spectral asked, walking over to stand directly behind the Odd-Eyes users. “You wouldn’t be here without a reason.”

“Oh? I can’t just be here to see you?” He asked sweetly.

“No, I know how you work. If you wanted to see me so badly, you would have called me back to the Void and only if you wanted to see all three of us at once.”

“True,” he hummed as he picked up a rock and study it. “Heartland isn’t exactly a place I like to be in. With the whole city in ruins and its people gone, I have no one to entertain. I was hoping Yugo would give you the message but he went crazy after I told him he could start playing with the big boys. So I decided to let him have his fun. The Synchro Dimension should have a nice makeover by the time I check up on him again.” He threw the rock down the cliff, watching as it fell to its doom and breaking into even smaller pieces when it hit the ground. “I’m on my way back to my home Dimension to give my people the show they deserve. And as for you, dear brother of mine-” 

Yuya stood up to face him with a psychotic expression planted on his face. 

“-the poor people of the Xyz Dimension are hungry.” He walked up to Spectral, placed a hand on his shoulder, and leaned up to whisper in his ear. 

“So how about you give them a bar-b-que they will never forget?”

…

“It is way too quiet out here.”

Ruri glanced over at Kaito. He was acting as lookout as Shun and her were searching through old ruined grocery stores, trying to find any food that was still edible after all this time. She was able to find some canned goods that were still in good condition but not nearly enough to feed all the remaining survivors.

“What do you mean, Kaito?” She asked.

“I mean just that. We went farther into enemy territory then I originally planned and we haven’t seen a single member of Academia yet. Either we are being lead into a trap or something is up.”

_ He’s right.  _ Ruri realized, looking out of one of the destroyed windows. She would have thought they would have at least ran into some scouts this far in but just as Kaito claimed, they haven’t seen anyone in those red, yellow, or blue uniforms. 

“Let’s start heading back. Dusk is sitting in and our phantoms are coming out.”

…

“They aren’t back yet.”

Sayaka stared out the window in worry. She had her hands close to her chest in a silent plea for them to return safely. 

“They should have been back by now. Kaito said before dusk.”

“Sayaka, you worry too much.” Allen spoke, walking over to stand with her. “This is Kaito, Shun, and Ruri we are talking about here. They are the Resistance best fighters. Even if they did run into some danger, I’m positive they can take care of it.”

Sayaka looked doubtful, after all the same could have been said with Yuto and look at what happened to him, but she nodded regardless.

“Brother and his friends aren’t the ones we should be worried about.”

Sayaka and Allen both looked over to see Haruto standing there, looking up at them with a blank expression. 

“Haruto, what are you doing up? I thought you were asleep?” Allen asked, kneeling down to be the same height as the younger boy. 

“I couldn’t sleep with him watching us.”

Allen blinked at him. “Haruto, what are you talking about?”

“Judgement Day is here. The third Horseman has come for us.”

…

“Ruri, how much do we got?” Shun asked his sister.

“Enough for maybe a week at the most if we do even shares.” Ruri answered going through most of their findings. Lucky for them that Shun was able to find a freezer that was somehow undamage from the attacks and still had food within it along with a duffle bag to carry most of it in.

Ruri smiled at this. If they continue to have luck like this and no Academia soldiers around, maybe, just maybe, they had a fighting chance after all.

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Kaito stated, “because we got a number of hungry people to feed and some of them are more greedy than others. Now let’s hurry. The lodge is only-”

The explosion was so loud that it shook Heartland to the very core. Kaito, Shun and Ruri froze as they all looked up to see whatever animals that were still here making a run for it from the kindling flames that came from the top of the hill. 

Ruri’s eyes widen in horror as she dropped to her knees in shock. “No way…” 

No. No. No. This couldn’t be happening.

“The Duel Lodge…”

“HARUTO!!!” 

The look of pure horror that appeared on Kaito’s face put Ruri’s to shame. He dropped whatever food he was carrying back that couldn’t fit in the duffle bag and took off running up the hill as fast as he could.

“Kaito! Wait!” Shun yelled up after him but he wouldn’t stop. Shun cursed as he looked at his sister. “Ruri, don’t move.” He ordered as he ran up after his comrade.

Ruri didn’t try to stop him, let alone hear him. She was still to horrified at what she was seeing that she had blocked out the rest of the world around her. 

“No.”

Whatever was left of Heartland City was now blazing up in a glorious hellfire. 

Meanwhile, Kaito and Shun were finally able to reach the top, both using their red scarves as mask to cover their mouths and noses from the smoke. 

“Kaito, we need to get out of here!” Shun tried to tell the other. “It’s not safe here!”

“Not without Haruto.” Kaito replied as he looking around in a frenzy for his little brother. “Haruto! Haruto!” 

“I’m afraid you are to late.”

Shun and Kaito both turned at the sound of a third voice coming from deeper within the flames. Footsteps following behind it until what was in their line of sights wasn’t a person but a dark horse. It looked like the horse you would see in pictures of the headless horseman only this thing’s rider was far from headless and wearing a black mask shaped like a dragon to boot. 

“Is this what you are looking for?” The black rider asked, holding up a card to show them.

Kaito went as white as a ghost while Shun cursed in anger.

“You bastard!”

“Spectral actually.” Spectral told him as he looked down at the card. “He wasn’t a duelist as most of the people here weren’t so my dragon refused to devour his soul. So he will rot in hell for all eternity.”

He dropped Haruto into the flames-

-and Kaito screamed.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!” Kaito’s eyes glowed with nothing but anger and hated as he activated his duel disk, a white body with a blue crescent blade. “YOU. WILL. PAY!”

“How predictable,” Spectral shook his head as he hopped off his horse who disappeared into thin air like a phantom. Spectral then activated his own duel disk, a black dragon’s head as the body with a purple fang as the blade, and like magic, the flames around them seemed to disappear, allowing them to duel without having to worry about the smoke or being burned. 

“This is the only gift of mercy I’m allowing you.”

**Spectral: 4000**

**Kaito: 4000**

Spectral started the duel off by holding up all five of his cards. “I place my whole hand face down. Turn end.” He said as all five of his cards appeared on the field.

Shun, who was standing off to the side in shock all this time by the disappearing flames and just everything else that was happening at the moment, blinked in surprise. 

_ That strategy… _

Kaito, on the other hand, who was being consumed by anger, didn’t seem to notice as he drew his card. 

“I play Harpie's Feather Duster. This destroys all your set cards in one go.”

“Wait, Kaito-!” 

Shun tried to stop him but he had already place the card into his duel disk. 

Spectral didn’t seemed fazed as he pushed a button on his duel disk. “Before you do, I active Phantoms Knights of Dark Gauntlets.” Three copies of the same trap card rose up showing a headpiece of a suit of armor protecting itself with its gauntlets.

Shun’s eyes widen in surprise. He didn’t think those cards were the ones he thought they were but that wasn’t the case.

_ Phantoms Knights?!  _

Even Kaito, with hatred burning in his eyes, seemed to calm down at noticing what kinds of cards those were. 

_ That was Yuto’s archetype. _

“Dark Gauntlets effect allows me to send a Phantom Knights spell or trap from my deck to the graveyard. I played three so I’ll be sending three copies of Phantom Knights’ Spear to the graveyard.” Spectral stated, showing the three cards to the two of them before sending them to the graveyard. Right after that, the effect of Harpie’s Feather Duster resolved and sent the last two spells and/or traps Spectral controlled to the graveyard. 

_ What the hell?  _ Shun wondered in disbelief.  _ Phantom Knights are an Xyz deck. No one from Academia would use Xyz. And even if they did, why Yuto’s archetype of all things?  _

Kaito, on the other hand, after seeing what kind of deck Spectral was running seemed to change up his game plan.

“I summon Cipher Soldier in attack mode.” 

A monster in a mechanical blue suit with a yellow shotgun appeared on the field (ATK: 1350 DEF: 1800).

“Go, Cipher Soldier! Attack him directly!”

Cipher Soldier raised its gun and fired a round of shots at Spectral.

“I activate the second effect of Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets from the graveyard.” Spectral spoke as he took one of the copies from his graveyard and held it up. “When I control no other cards and I’m being attacked directly, I can special summon this card from my graveyard as a Dark Warrior-Type Monster in defense mode.”

The fallen pair of gauntlets rose up from the graveyard, shielding Spectral from the attack (ATK: 300 DEF: 600)

“And when Dark Gauntlets is summoned this way, it gains 300 DEF points for each Phantom Knights spell and trap card in my graveyard.” Spectral raised his duel disk up. “I have seven Phantom Knights cards in my graveyard due to you destroying my field so Dark Gauntlets gains 2100 more DEF points.” (ATK: 300 DEF: 600-2700). 

“Dark Gauntlets is now the stronger monster.”

“No, it’s not.” Kaito stated, gesturing to Cipher Soldier who out of nowhere seemed to double in strength (ATK: 1350-3350 DEF: 1800-3800). “Cipher Soldier's effect. When it battle a Warrior-Type Monster, it gains 2000 ATK and DEF points until the end of the damage calculation.”

Spectral still didn’t seem surprised at that as he took a card out of his graveyard. “I banish a copy of Phantom Knights’ Spear to active its effect. When a Dark Attribute monster would be destroyed, it isn’t.”

A shield appeared around Dark Gauntlet, protecting it from the bullets of Cipher Soldier's attack.

Kaito said nothing to that as he held up a card. “I place a card face down, turn end.” He finished.

Spectral placed his fingers on his deck, about to draw when-

“Intrusion penalty! 2000 Life points!”

**Spectral: 4000**

**Kaito: 4000**

**Shun: 2000**

“Huh?” Kaito looked over at Shun, who had activated his duel disk and joined in on the duel. “Shun, stay out of this! This is my fight!”

Shun ignored him as he held up a card. “I summon Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius.” 

A green mechanical bird appeared on the field with a cry (ATK: 1300 DEF: 1600).

“With its effect, I can special summon another Raidraptor monster from my hand so I’ll summon another Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius.” 

A second copy of the first monster appeared on the field.

“With that Vanishing Lanius’s effect, I special summon Raidraptor - Mimicry Lanius.” 

Appearing next to the two green birds was a yellow mechanical bird with glowing light green wings (ATK: 1100 DEF: 1900).

“Mimicry Lanius’s effect activates. When this card is summoned, it can increase all Raidraptor monsters’ levels on the field by one.”

Spectral watched as the three monsters all became level 5, knowing very well what was coming next.

“I now overlay my two level 5 Vanishing Lanius and Mimicry Lanius!”

The three monsters all became dark lights as they went into the yellow vortex in the ground.

_ “Ferocious falcon. Break through this fierce battle and spread your wings! Destroy our gathering foes! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank 5! Raid Raptors - Blaze Falcon!” _

The Xyz monster let out a cry as it opened up its wings for battle. Like the other three monsters, this Raidraptor was a mechanical bird sporting a bright red color (ATK: 1000 DEF: 2000). 

“Impressive, I expected nothing less from you, Shun.”

Shun paused at that just before he was about to call his attack. “How do you know my name?”

Spectral didn’t answer.

Shun gritted his teeth at that. “If you won’t talk, I’ll make you. Raidraptor - Blaze Falcon can attack you directly. Be prepared to be on the opposite end of the flames now, you scum!”

Blaze Falcon rose up into the air, catching itself on fire, looking almost like a phoenix, as it dive bombed Spectral. The Phantom Knight user used his robe to defend himself from the attack but it came out seared.

**Spectral: 3000**

**Kaito: 4000**

**Shun: 2000**

“Blaze Falcon’s effect activates. When it deals battle damage to you, it can destroy a monster on your field.”

Blaze Falcon opened up its wings, unleashing tiny mini guns to take out Dark Gauntlet.

“I banish my second Phantom Knights’ Spear from my graveyard to negate Dark Gauntlet’s destruction.” 

The shield reappeared around the Phantom Knights monster, protecting it.

Shun looked annoyed but he had a back up plan. “I activate Blaze Falcon’s second effect. By detaching an overlay unit, it can destroy as many special summoned monsters as possible and you take 500 points of damage for each monster destroyed.”

The mini guns came out of Blaze Falcon again for revenge.

“I banish my final Phantom Knights’ Spear to once again negate Dark Gauntlet’s destruction.”

And once again, the shield appeared around Dark Gauntlet, defending it from the assault.

Shun cursed as Blaze Falcon lowered to his side. “You are protecting that monster for a reason and it isn’t just for the defense points.”

“You would be correct.”

Shun placed a face down at that. “I end my turn.”

Spectral drew his card, finally getting a hand back but not for long. 

“I summon Phantom Knights of Cloven Helm.”

A blue ghostly figure possessing a old helmet and gloves appeared (ATK: 1500 DEF: 500).

“Two level 4 monsters.” Shun spoke.

“I overlay my level 4 Phantom Knights Cloven Helm and Dark Gauntlet.”

The two spirits went into the ground to create the overlay network. 

_ "Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! Now, descend! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" _

“What?!” Shun and Kaito both looked shocked as the terrifying dragon rose up from the darkness to stare down at who opposed it (ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000).

“Using Yuto’s archetype is one thing but having his dragon as well.” Shun gritted his teeth as he glared over at Spectral. 

“Who are you?!”

“You are my  _ best friend.  _ You tell me.”

Time seemed to slow down for Shun at that statement as Spectral gestured to his dragon. “Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack Blaze Falcon. Lightning Disobey of Rebellion!”

“Shun!” Kaito yelled at his comrade but Shun didn’t seem to hear him. He was still shocked over the statement Spectral just told him. Kaito cursed as he activated his face down. “I active the quick-play spell, Reversal Attack. This card allows me to switch the attack of a monster I control with a monster my opponent controls until the end phase of the turn. I switch the attack of my Cipher Soldier with Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon.”

The attack of the 1350 Cipher Soldier and the 2500 Dark Rebellion swapped but Dark Rebellion still had enough points to destroy Blaze Falcon but with Shun taking less damage. 

**Spectral: 3000**

**Kaito: 4000**

**Shun: 1650**

“How foolish,” Spectral spoke as his dragon returned to his side of the field. “Wasting your defense to protect your comrade. But I expected nothing less.” He signaled the end of his turn with that. 

“Shut it, scum.” Kaito said as he drew his card. “I activate Cipher Starlight. By paying 1000 life points, I can increase the level of Cipher Soldier to level 4.”

**Spectral: 3000**

**Kaito: 3000**

**Shun: 1650**

“I now summon Cipher Wing.”

A monster made up of pure light in the form of wings appeared next to the soldier (ATK: 1400 DEF: 1200).

“And since I control a Cipher monster, I can special summon another Cipher Wing from my hand.”

A second Cipher Wing appeared next to the first before it disappeared from the field.

“And by tributing a Cipher Wing, I can increase the levels of all my other Cipher monsters by 4.” 

“Two level 8 monsters.” Spectral mused watching as the Cipher monsters levels doubled.

“I now overlay my level 8 Cipher Soldier and level 8 Cipher Wing!”

_ "Galaxy shining in the darkness, embody the demonic god of revenge and become my very servant! Xyz Summon! Descend, Rank 8! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!" _

The dragon was stunning as it let out a roar as it entered the battlefield. It was made up of pure light with stars shining in a endless galaxy in its eyes (ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500).

“I active Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon’s effect. By detaching an overlay unit, it can take control of your Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon until the end of this turn and treat it as copy of itself. Go Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon! Cipher Projection!”

The dragon opened up its wings and let out a powerful burst of light, heading straight towards Dark Rebellion.

“You are so predictable, Kaito.”

“What?”

“From my graveyard, I activate Phantom Knights’ Mirror.” Spectral held up the trap card, showing a picture of an old rusty mirror with a dark aura around it. “When my opponent activates an effect that would take control of one of my monsters, that effect is negated, and then I can take control of one of my opponent's monsters.”

Kaito’s eyes widen in shock at that as a mirror appeared on Spectral’s side of the field and reflected Cipher Dragon’s effect right back at it. The dragon let out a cry as it disappeared from Kaito’s side of the field and reappeared on Spectral’s side right next to Dark Rebellion.

Spectral glanced up at the dragon before looking over at Kaito who had a pure pissed off expression on his face. “Phantom Knights’ Mirror has another effect. When it is banished, I can banish two more Phantom Knights cards from my graveyard,” he held up his other copies of Phantom Knights of Dark Gauntlets, “allowing me to attack during the turn this card was activated with the monster I took from you and with a Dark Type monster I originally control.”

“What?! During your opponent's turn?!” 

Shun also looked horrified as he glanced at his face down which was completely useless since he had no monsters on his field.

“You only have 3000 life points left, Kaito, the exact same amount as Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon’s attack points.” Spectral then glanced over at Shun. “And you, Shun, have only 1650. Dark Rebellion has more than enough attack points to finish you off.” 

Both of the boys gritted their teeth at the statements, knowing right away that they were screwed.

“Farewell, my former comrades.” 

Spectral snapped his fingers and both dragon unleashed powerful beams of light and dark respectively at their targeted opponents. 

_ Is this really the end?  _ Shun wondered as he closed his eyes, bracing for impact.

“I activate the effect of Battle Fader from my hand!”

Shun’s eyes shot open at the sound of that voice. Just as the two beams were about to take them out, a small fiend monster appeared in front of them and shielded them from the attacks.

“What?” Now it was Spectral’s turn to be surprised as he glanced over to where that voice came from.

“When my opponent declares a direct attack, I can special summon this card from my hand and end the battle phase.” Ruri stated as her tiny fiend floated to her side.

“Intrusion penalty! 2000 Life points!”

**Spectral: 3000**

**Kaito: 3000**

**Shun: 1650**

**Ruri: 2000**

“Ruri…” Shun glanced over at his sister. 

“Brother, Kaito, are you two okay?” Ruri asked, checking over them to see if they didn’t have any life threatening injuries. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, Dark Rebellion let out an annoyed hiss while Spectral narrowed his eyes at Ruri.

“That card…”

…

_ Ruri took her seat on the benches with a sad look on her face. _

_ “Hey, don’t look so sad, Ruri.” Yuto said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You did great out there.” _

_ “For the first half of the duel maybe.” Ruri replied looking down at her feet. “But once my monster was destroyed, I had no way to protect myself and I lost. We are now losing to Clover because of my failure.” _

_ “That’s not true. We are only one point behind. Shun will tie it back up for us.” _

_ “Yeah, like he always does. He always has to come in and fix my mistakes.” _

_ Yuto let out a sigh at that as he reached into his pocket and handed her a card. “Here.” _

_ “Huh?” Ruri looked down at the card that Yuto just handed to her. “What’s this?” _

_ “It is called Battle Fader.” He replied with a smile. “It is a monster that can protect you if your field is empty and it is a level 1 monster so you can use it to Xyz with your other Lyrical Luscinia monsters.” _

_ Ruri blinked at that. “And you are just giving this to me? But Yuto, what about-?” _

_ “What about Shun?” Yuto laughed softly at that. “Don’t worry about him, Ruri. If he doesn’t like the fact that I gave you a card then he can take it up with me himself. I’m not scared of him.” _

_ It was at that moment that Shun had returned to the benches. He won his duel, just as she thought he would, and turned to smile at Yuto for being right as always only to notice that he wasn’t sitting as close to her as he was a minute ago.  _

_ Ruri giggled at that. “Not scared huh?” _

_ Yuto blushed at that while Shun just looked confused.  _

...

Spectral let out an annoyed curse at his past self’s foolishness.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, Ruri.”

“Huh?” Ruri looked over at Spectral at that. “H-how do you know my name?” It was then that she noticed Dark Rebellion on Spectral’s field. “And why do you have Yuto’s dragon?!”

Spectral didn’t answer.

Ruri narrowed her eyes at that as she raised her duel disk. “Kaito, end your turn. I’ll take care of this guy.”

“Ruri…” Kaito was about to say something but he saw the flames of determination in her eyes and stopped himself. “I..I end my turn.”

“Ruri,” Shun looked at his sister with an uneasy expression as she drew from her deck.

“I summon Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow!”

A tiny brown bird girl with blond hair and cobalt blue eyes appeared (ATK: 0 DEF: 100).

“I overlay my level 1 Battle Fader with my level 1 Cobalt Sparrow!”

_ "Bird with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Summon! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" _

From a gust of wind emerge a beautiful harpie with light brown and light blue feathers and armor dress with golden bands wrapped around her shoulders (ATK: 0 DEF: 0).

“Assembly Nightingale gains 200 ATK points for each of her overlay units.” Ruri stated as her monster’s attack increased (ATK: 0-400 DEF: 0). “And she can attack my opponent directly up to the number of overlay units she has.”

“2 times 400 would be 800 damage.” Kaito stated.

“But things are never that simple with Ruri when she’s serious.” Shun added in.

“I equip Assembly Nightingale with the equip spell, Stoic Challenge” Ruri continued placing the card into her spell and trap card zone. “This card give Assembly Nightingale 500 more ATK for each of her materials.”

“That would be 1000.” Kaito watched as her monster’s attack increased once again (ATK: 400-1400 DEF: 0)

“And combine that with Assembly Nightingale's effect, that would mean he’s taking 2800 points of direct battle damage.” 

Behind his mask, Spectral’s face had curled back into a scowl. 

“Go Assembly Nightingale! Fly over his monsters and attack this fiend directly!”

The Winged-Beast monster did just that. She took off into the air, flew right over the two Dragon Type monsters and landed a kick directly on Spectral’s mask. He flinched back at the hit as his mask started to crack from the attack.

**Spectral: 1600**

**Kaito: 3000**

**Shun: 1650**

**Ruri: 2000**

“Now for the second blow, Assembly Nightingale! Unmask him!”

The harpie flew back around in a circle and drove down to unleash another aerial attack. While this one wasn’t a direct hit like the first one was, the force of the attack was enough to cause the crack to grow until the mask finally broke in half with the pieces falling to the ground.

**Spectral: 200**

**Kaito: 3000**

**Shun: 1650**

**Ruri: 2000**

“Nice job, Assembly Nightingale!” Ruri praised her monster as it returned to her side of the field before she looked back over at Spectral. He had his head bent, covering his face from sight with his hood. 

“Alright, enough games! Who are you?!” Ruri demanded to know.

“You really want to know?” Spectral asked, slowly rising his head, pulling his hood off. “I thought it was obvious or you lot just don’t want to believe in the cold hard truth that’s standing right in front of your eyes.”

Emotions came flooding into Ruri’s vision at the sight before her.

Shun looked away, closing his eyes with a curse. Spectral was right. The proof was right there in front of them this whole time but he didn’t want to believe it until now.

“Damn it,” Kaito cursed, his hands tightening at his side. “You bastard.”

For the second time that day, Ruri’s legs couldn’t support her anymore and she came crashing down onto her knees.

“Yuto…”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Ruri?” Yuto asked her, his grey eyes staring down at her but not with any of the fondness and/or kindness he always had when he looked at her. No, instead they were cold and emotionless voids with a tint of pure hated.

“Yuto...” Ruri didn’t know what else to say other then his name. “I-”

“I activate the effect of Phantom Knights’ Cannon.” Yuto cut her off, holding up the last trap card that was in his graveyard. “During the end of the battle phase, I can banish this card from my graveyard and my opponent takes the same amount of battle damage that I took.”

A rusty old cannon rose up from the ground, it sights directly on Ruri.

“All battle damage?!” Shun exclaimed. “But you took 2800 points of damage and Ruri only has...Ruri!” Shun tried to run over to his sister but he was stopped in his tracks when Dark Rebellion appeared in front of him, growling down at him.

“Don’t try and interfere, Shun.” Yuto said to him, coldly. “And same to you too, Kaito.”

“Damn it,” Kaito tried to get over to Ruri’s side but he was stopped by his owner former dragon. 

Everything went in slow motion after that. The cannon fired, Shun and Kaito were horrified, Yuto was emotionless and as for Ruri…

“Yuto...”

She was crying.

The cannon ball hit her straight in the stomach, sending the poor girl flying back into the debris with a bang.

“RURI!”

**Yuto: 200**

**Kaito: 3000**

**Shun: 1650**

**Ruri: 0**

Everything was spinning, everything was hurting, just like that time. Ruri felt like she was going to throw up, and she almost did, as she heard footsteps coming towards her. When she finally got her bearings together, she looked up to see Yuto standing directly in front of her, his cold grey eyes staring down at her with no mercy within their gaze.

“Yuto…” Ruri could feel her tears running down her face as she saw him raise his duel disk. 

“Why?”

“Why?” He repeated the question like it was obvious.

“Because you decided to ruin  **_everything_ ** _ , little bird.”  _

Yuto went to push the button on his duel disk.

**_“No.”_ **

Yuto froze at that while Ruri looked at him through teary eyes.

“Yuto?”

**_“No need to card Ray’s Bird so soon, Yuto. Clipping her wings will do just fine for now. Let her live knowing the truth for a bit longer. Breaking them slowly is much more enjoyable, especially for this traitor.”_ **

Yuto lowered his duel disk at that, to the surprise of Ruri, Shun, and Kaito. 

**_“You done what you came here to do. As much as it pains me to leave Dark Rebellion unsatisfied, we have bigger problems to deal with.”_ **

**_“Ray’s Flower has proven to be quite the nuisance.”_ **

“Understood master.” Yuto mumbled with his head bowed. “I’ll go get that idiot.”

Yuto deactivated his duel disk. “This duel is canceled.” He stated, tossing Kaito back his dragon. “Enjoy your peace while you got it, my friends.” 

Both of the dragons disappeared from the field as Yuto started walking away. Shun looked over at him. He wanted to stop him but his sister’s well being came first.

“Ruri!” Shun ran over to his sister who looked quite shocked. Who could blame her? She was about to be turned into a card and that was the least of the horrifying things that she witness today.

Kaito looked over at the siblings before he turned to look at Yuto who seemed to be doing something with his duel disk. “You bastard! You killed my little brother and everyone else that was left of our homeland and you still have the nerve to call us your friends, you traitor?!”

Yuto simply glanced over his shoulder at that with his emotionless gaze.

“Answer me, Yuto!”

“All members of Academia that were in the area are now carded.” Yuto stated, looking back down at his duel disk. “And as you just stated, whatever was left of Heartland. You three are the only ones left in the Xyz Dimension for the time being. You survived this purge not because of your own skills but because my  _ master  _ doesn’t feel the need to kill you right now. Even one half of the person that broke him apart is no threat to us. So yes, Kaito, I’m calling you lot my friends because you are sightly better than the rest of the trash in our eyes.” 

“Yuto…” Ruri couldn’t believe what she was hearing as Shun helped her to her feet. 

“What happened to you?”

“A crimson demon opened my eyes to the truth, Ruri, that’s what.”

As soon as he said that, a portal opened up in front of Yuto. 

“I bid thee farewell for now.”

Yuto stepped through the portal…

...and something in Ruri must have snapped.

“That’s not an answer, Yuto!” He screamed. She pushed herself out of her brother’s hold and took off after him into the portal.

“Ruri, wai-” That was all Ruri heard from her brother as the portal closed behind her.

And everything went black.

The next thing Ruri knew, she was standing in the middle of a city, surrounded by people much to her surprise.

“Where?” She turned her head, looking around this strange place. “Where am I?”

If she had looked directly behind her at that second, she would have seen the first flames erupt from LDS central court. 

But she did hear the screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Fallenangelshippers, who wants to kill me or Yuya? I'm very curious.
> 
> So yeah, this is how the Yuu Boys are now if you couldn't have guessed already: Yugo is a lot more aggressive, Yuto is emotionless, and Yuya...well he's on Yuri's crazy pills basically, all for different reasons. 
> 
> Speaking of Yuri...I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm still not over his "death" yet. The poor baby just wanted to be loved! *sigh* but seriously though, next chapter is going back to Yuya and Yuzu and after that...well if you know me, you won't be surprised at what follows next.


	4. Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the nightmare that is chapter 4 is out! And when I mean, nightmare, I mean nightmare for this chapter as a whole and just writing it. Out of the four chapters that I have written for this story so far, this is the one I just feel awful about posting as it is. I feel like I could've made this so much better but it turned out to be this mess. I was actually going to make this longer and add more backstory but I decided to make this a two part chapter since things weren't flowing the way I wanted them too in just this one alone.
> 
> But enough of me feeling sorry for myself, what are you guys going to get in this chapter? Well we get to see what is happening between Yuya and Yuzu from where chapter 2 ended off as well as the first half to Yuya's backstory on why he is the way he is. The backstory part is the part that I feel like I could've made better but hopefully I can make up for it with chapter 5. But that's enough from me. I hope you guys enjoy!

_ “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, Yuya!” _

_ “Yeah see ya, Yuzu!” Yuya waved back at his female best friend as she took her path home from their  _ _ elementary school. Usually they would head to his father’s duel school after they finished their regular schooling but Yuzu said she was going shopping with her dad today so it was just Yuya heading down there by himself. He didn’t mind though. The eleven-year-old enjoyed nice peaceful walks when he got the chance to have them. _

_ So off he went, skipping down the sidewalk to the Yu Show Duel School, singing a song he learned today in class. _

“Believe × Believe

Everybody goin' Break through the wall!

You're gonna beat it beat!

Those infinite futures, throw your hesitation away!”

_ Yuya was so content in his singing and where he was heading that he failed to notice a group of people sneaking up on him from behind until someone put a bag over his head while another person grabbed him and lifted the poor boy off the ground. All that Yuya remembered next before blacking out from the lack of oxygen within the bag over his head was him struggling to get himself free, knocking his backpack off in the process as the third member of the group was saying something. _

_ “We have the boy, Professor.” _

...

It was like a wave of nostalgia came flooding into Yuzu’s mind. There was her and Yuya getting ice cream together, then it changed to them playing on a playset together, and finally them dueling each other for the first time. All of those memories were of Yuya smiling brightly for the whole world to see. 

“Yuya...you are alive…” Yuzu couldn’t stop her tears of happiness from falling down her face. 

“Yoko, where are you going?”

Yuzu looked over at that to see Yoko standing up from her chair and rushing over to the front door.

“Shuzo, Yuya is alive. My baby boy is alive and right there. You really expect me to not just leave at knowing that fact?”

“No, of course not!” Shuzo stood up so quickly from his seat that it fell backward from the motion. “But you can’t just walk all the way down there to LDS’s Central Court.”

“Watch me.”

“I have a better idea. Yuzu, grab my keys.”

…

_ The feeling of the metal touching his wrists and ankles as he was strapped down onto the steel table was what made Yuya come to. The child was confused at first until he remembered what happened as he struggled to break himself free. _

_ “Don’t even try. You will only end up hurting yourself.” _

_ That when Yuya realized he wasn’t alone in the room. He scanned around the area until his eyes landed on the figure that spoke to him. _

_ “Who...who are you?” Yuya asked in a fearful tone, trying to move as far back from this guy as he could even with being strapped down. Just the very appearance of this person sent chills down his spine, whether it was due to his sunken eyes and cheeks, the large bags under his eyes, his dilated pupils, or just all of the above made him fear for his life. “And...what do you want with me?” _

_ “I go by many name, my child, but you can just call me The Doctor.” The man stated with a crazed chuckle that only made Yuya even more fearful for his life. “As for why you are here, boy, the answer is rather simple really. The Professor wanted you here to do some tests.” _

_ “Professor…? Tests…?” _

_ “Oh don’t worry, they are nothing to stress about. Academia has some of the best technology in all of the Four Dimensions. It will feel like you are having a dream...with some occasional shocks to your brain to keep it responding of course.” _

_ Yuya’s eyes widen at that and he really tried to break himself free from his predicament at the same time calling for help. _

_ “Mom! Dad! Help me!” _

_ “I’m afraid to disappoint you, boy, but they won’t be coming for you. No one will be coming to save a demon like you from his fate.” _

...

That’s how Yuzu found herself sitting in the back seat of her dad’s car with Shuzo taking shotgun and Yoko driving like mad. Yoko didn’t want to waste time so she snatched the car keys from her as she was handing them to her father and out right told Shuzo that she was driving, saying she didn’t have time or the patience to deal with his “over the top safety driving” as she put it. 

“Yoko, slow down!” Shuzo cried, holding onto his armrest for dear life as Yoko ran another red light. “You are going to get us killed!”

Yoko must have took that as go faster in her mind as she hit the gas even more.

Yuzu gulped. Now she knew where Yuya got his insane traits from. 

Speaking of Yuya, as soon as they entered the car, Yoko had switched on the radio so they could listen to his duel as they drove. Yuya, or as he referred to himself as Mars, was dueling strangely from how she remembered him. He wasn’t using his Performapals at all but instead using Odd-Eyes cards that Yuzu had never heard of before. But what surprised her the most was the fact that he was actually holding his own against the champion, almost dealing big blows to him if he didn’t find a way to counter them. 

_ “And I must apologize to you, Lord Zarc. You expect more out of me and I’m disappointing you, aren’t I?” _

_ Huh? Zarc?  _ Yuzu stared at the radio in confusion. Yuya has been acting weird ever since the beginning of this duel, she didn’t have to see him in person to see the difference, but now he was saying things that really weren’t making sense.

With Yoko continuing to break any and all traffic laws, they were able to reach the stadium in record time. As soon as the car stopped, Yuzu hopped out and ran into the stadium as fast as she could, not even waiting for her dad and Yoko even when they were calling for her to wait for them to park the car first. 

“Yuya!” She called running through the halls of the stadium to the main area. “Yu-”

Yuzu froze as she reached the end, only to witness Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon unleash its first blast onto the crowd. 

Yuzu stared in absolute horror as people rushed past her to get to safety while others weren’t so lucky and their bodies dropped to the ground in the stands. 

“Yuya...what are you doing?” She asked, her blue eyes widened in pure terror at her childhood friend. 

“Yuya!”

…

_ Days, weeks, maybe only a month has passed since Yuya was brought to Academia even though it only felt like a few hours have passed to the child. He honestly couldn’t have telled anymore. Just like the Doctor had stated, he was placed under these brain tests that distorted reality for him. He placed a machine around his head that at first felt nice in a sense but after a few moments was when the torture started. The shocks to his brain started out as small but over time they just kept increasing and increasing and increasing that Yuya ran out of tears to cry along with slowly losing his voice from all the screaming he did as his body started to go numb from his brain not being able to send signals to the rest of his body.  _

_ “My, you are a stubborn one, aren’t you.” The Doctor entered his lab with a cup of coffee in hand. He took a slip from his drink before placing it down on his side deck. “Why do you continue to protect him? You are only causing more suffering upon yourself.” _

_ “I keep telling you, I don’t know who this “Zarc” person is.” Yuya said, now starting to sound annoyed. This was why he was taken to his hell. Apparently, he was this “Zarc” character or at least a fragment of him from what Yuya has been told. All this time, the Doctor had been scanning his mind for him, using the shocks to his brain to try to force Zarc out but even that wasn’t working. The Doctor then came to the conclusion that Yuya was somehow protecting him and at denying this claim, the Doctor seemed to take it as more proof to his theory.  _

_ “Yes, yes, you continue to say that and I’ll continue to try to force him out of hiding wherever he may be until your brain completely shuts down.” _

…

“Well isn’t this a  _ pleasant _ surprise. Don’t you think so too, Lord Zarc?”

Yuya placed a hand on his hip while using his other one to pet his dragon. He was smiling but it was quite clear that he wasn’t happy. At least, it was quite clear if you knew what he was really like underneath his mask of innocence.

“Yuya!” Yuzu let out breath after breath as she finally made it to the field, standing opposite to the Odd-Eyes Duelist. “What do you-”

“Yuzu!” Yuya smiled brightly at his childhood  _ friend,  _ spreading his arms wide like he was about to hug her but he never made a move towards her. “It’s been so long! I missed you!”

Sadness, fear, those emotions were still there but just the sight of him, just the very fact he was alive this whole time and never came back suddenly sunk into Yuzu’s head. He was acting like he just came back from a trip, not back from the dead in Yuzu’s eyes and the anger just came flooding in. 

“What the hell, Yuya?!” She screamed.

Yuya lowered his arms to his side. “Huh?”

“Don’t “huh” me!” She pointed a finger at him, accusingly. “You just up and disappeared three years ago! No one knew what happened to you! We all thought you were dead! But no, you were alive all this time?! And you never came back?! Do you even realize what you have done by being away?! Your father is now gone! Your mother weeps every night because she thinks her son is dead in a ditch somewhere! My dad lost someone he could call family and as for me-” 

Yuzu was out right bawling now, all the emotions she held inside of her over the years were finally being released. 

“-I lost my first and closest friend! You hurt so many people emotionally, Sakaki Yuya, and now this?!” Yuzu gestured around the area, her eyes never leaving Yuya as she was to afraid to look at anymore dead bodies. “People are dead! Do you not realize that by telling your dragon to unleash “fireworks”, you ended up hurting even more people?! So I’ll ask again, WHAT THE HELL, YUYA?!”

Yuya was silent this whole time as Yuzu chewed him a new one. Odd-Eyes was growling in annoyance but Yuya on the other hand looked almost...horrified…?

“Oh god…” Yuya’s eyes widen at the realization as he looked around. True to her words, people, man, woman, and even children, were dead. Their blood strained the seats of the stadium while others were in pieces. Yuya covered his mouth like he was going to be sick as he dropped to his knees.

“I’m so sorry, Yuzu.” Yuya dropped down onto his knees, grabbing his head in shock. “I just thought…and he told me too...and if I didn’t...”

Sobs could be heard coming from the hooded figure. Yuzu froze at that, not expecting Yuya to out right break down from her calling him out. And what did he mean that he told him to?

_ Oh god, _ Yuzu realized after a few seconds,  _ was he actually kidnapped all this time and forced to do this? Did I really just jump to conclusions? _

“Yuya, don’t cry!” Yuzu took a few steps closer to him. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

“You are so gullible.” 

Yuzu paused at that. Yuya’s body was shaking but it wasn’t because he was crying.

It was because he was laughing.

“Odd-Eyes.”

Yuzu looked up when she heard the roar. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon’s dual colored eyes were glaring down at her with absolute fury and its mouth wide open. 

“Burn the bitch.”

It was so close that Yuzu could smell its horrible breath. It was so close to her face that she could see the exact moment it started to build up fire within its mouth. It was so close to her that she was burning even before the Spiral Burst was fired down at her. 

It was so close that Yuzu didn’t even have time to think about running. She was already dead when she realized that Yuya played her for a fool and lead her into a trap.

…

_ Yuya stared at the ceiling with dull eyes. The Doctor had left a while ago, more then likely to get himself more coffee to stay awake to continue to study Yuya’s mind. He still hasn’t been able to pick up any trace of Zarc yet which only lead him to increasing the shocks even more. Not only that, he started using other methods of torture such as burning him with lighters and one time he tried to drown him, hoping the lack of oxygen would case Zarc to surface but even that didn’t work. _

_ At the sound of the door opening and hearing footsteps entering the room, Yuya didn’t look over. He already knew who it was but to his surprise, the Doctor wasn’t alone this time. _

_ “As you can see, Professor, the boy’s will to fight back is slowly but surely depleting. In just a few more days, the Demon Duelist will have nowhere else to hide.” _

_ “And the progress on finding the card?” _

_ “The Obelisk Force are still searching in Standard for it.” _

_ That voice. Why did it sound so familiar? Yuya glanced over and his eyes widen at who was talking to the Doctor. _

_ Akaba Leo.  _

_ A year ago, on his way home from school, Yuya decided to play a visit to his dad’s lab to surprise him. It was there that he met Akaba Leo, his father’s lab partner who together created the Real Solid Vision System that lead to the creation of Action Duels. A few months later, he suddenly disappeared. His father was distraught about his disappearance since they were really good friends from what Yuya could tell.  _

_ He was...the Professor? He was the one that ordered for him to be brought here? Why? When they first met, Leo was so kind to him. He even told him that he had a son of his own that was just two years older than Yuya that he would love for him to met one day. Was that...all just one big lie?  _

_ “Continue to do what you have been doing, Doctor.” Leo told him as his eyes met Yuya’s who looked like he was about to start crying again. “Until we can find the card, we can only hope to force Zarc out.” _

…

“Ding dong the bitch is dead!” Yuya sang in a childish tone. He capped his hands together happily as his dragon turned to face him, looking just as satisfied as its master. “Great job, boy!” Yuya ran on over and hugged his dragon around its neck, scratching behind its horns. “Who is a good boy? You are! You are, my big powerful baby dragon!” 

If dragons could purr, Odd-Eyes was doing just that.

“Yuya!”

“Hmmm?” Yuya looked over at that to see Shuzo followed by Yoko entering the arena in shock. “Oh look at what Ray’s Flower bought with her, Odd-Eyes.”

“What in the world…” Shuzo looked horrified at what he was seeing. It looked like something out of a horror movie only this was real life and much worse than any movie he ever seen. And then there was Yuya, standing there looking gleeful with a patch of flames burning next to him. 

“Yuya!” Yoko on the other hand didn’t even seem to notice the corpses. She was staring at her son who simply smiled back at her.

Yuya waved at her cheerfully. “Hey mom!”

It must have been the pure shock and just the sight of her son before her that made Yoko’s brain shut down for that moment as pure instincts kicked in for a mother to protect her child as she ran over to him to make sure that he was truly there and okay.

“Yoko, wait-”

“You are all so stupid.”

The disturbing expression that crossed Yuya’s face could’ve put a certain counterpart of his to shame as he raised his hand and fired a dark shadowy beam at  _ his mother,  _ aiming straight for her heart. 

And it would’ve hit home too if it wasn’t for the fact that it was blocked by a different energy beam similar to his own but this one was bright pink in color.

“What?!” Yuya looked out right astonished at what just happened and same with Yoko and Shuzo but for different reasons. With tears falling from her eyes, Yoko backed away from her son while Yuya and Shuzo followed the trail of pink light to see where it originated from.

You could imagine the look of outrage on Yuya’s face when he saw Hiragi Yuzu standing there where the flames from the attack on her were, complete unscaved, with the pink jewel on her bracelet blinking at him as if to mock his efforts of trying to kill her in vain. 

“That’s enough, Yuya!” Yuzu yelled at him and her bracelet seemed to blink in agreement. 

Yuya scowled at her and her inferior device while Odd-Eyes roared at them.

_ The bracelet protected her from Odd-Eyes’s attack.  _ Yuya realized in annoyance. His once childlike demeanor had long since disappeared and was now replaced with a wicked expression, his crimson eyes now glowing with fury at Ray’s attempts to fight back against them even in death.

“I hardly think this has been enough, Yuzu.” Yuya stated with a twisted smile as a dark aura surrounded his figure. “After all, the fun has just began!” 

Yuzu looked like she was about to say something to that when suddenly, her bracelet started glowing like mad before it shot another beam from its jewel directly at Yuya. The Standard Counterpart didn’t even realize how fast it was traveling and didn’t have time to protect himself with his own darkness or with Odd-Eyes for that matter as it struck him directly in his heart. Yuya let out a breathless gasp while behind him, unnoticed to everyone else, a figured made up of darkness out right screamed in pure agony from the bracelet’s light before it evaporated into nothingness. 

“Master…” Yuya was barely able to say as everything slowly starting going black.

The last thing Yuya heard was Odd-Eyes’s painful cry as it disappeared from the field as Yuya face planted to the ground.

…

_ If Yuya wanted to be honest, he didn’t know how things could get worse for him. He was tortured physically and mentally beyond belief that his whole body has become numb to the pain at this point. He didn’t think anything else the Doctor could do to him would affect him anymore. _

_ Oh how wrong he was. _

_ “You finally found it? Yes! Bring it to me at once!” _

_ The Doctor was excited. Yuya had never seen him in such a good mood before that it was horrifying to see how giddy he was getting. Which only meant one thing in his eyes. _

_ Things were about to ten times worse for him. _

_ A member of the Obelisk Force entered the room. He didn’t bother to pay attention to Yuya as he handed something to the Doctor before leaving the room. The Doctor was letting out mad chuckles as he turned to face Yuya. _

_ “Yes! Yes! This should bring Zarc to the surface! He won’t hide anymore once he knows that I have his precious servant locked up now too!” _

_ The Doctor held up what he was given to show Yuya. It was a duel monster’s card but not just any duel monster’s card, it was one that Yuya knew and treasured dearly to him. _

_ Odd-Eyes Dragon.  _

…

Somehow, even with having your best friend from childhood coming back from the dead, having a bracelet that can create force fields to save your life from said childhood friend turned out to be the highlight of Yuzu’s day. The lowest being that said bracelet might have just killed him as well. 

Yuzu was petrified as she watched her familiar friend dropped dead onto the ground. His crimson eyes were wide open, so she knew for a fact that he wasn’t out cold, but they no longer held any anger within them. They were just gazed over, looking up at her lifelessly. 

Yuzu glanced down at her bracelet as it stopped glowing. 

“Wha-”

“YUYA!” 

_ Oh no.  _ Yuzu looked over to see Yoko running over to her son’s fallen form. She dropped down onto her knees and checked his pulse. Her eyes widen in out right terror when she couldn’t find one. 

“Yoko…” Yuzu didn’t know what to say as Yoko started to try to give him CPR but he wasn’t responding. 

“Yuzu.” The pinknette looked up when she felt her father place a hand on her shoulder.

“Dad…” Yuzu could feel her tears falling again. “I-”

Her bracelet started blinking once more as something roared. 

Everyone froze as a black figure shot across the sky before landing directly in front of Yoko. It was a mighty black dragon with bright yellow eyes, glaring down at Yoko before slamming its tail into her, knocking her backwards away from Yuya.

“Yoko!” Shuzo ran over to her while Yuzu could only stare as the black dragon gently picked up Yuya with its claws before spending its wings and taking off back into the air. Yuzu was paralyzed as she watched it fly over the stadium but it seemed low enough for someone else to hop onto its back from the very top of the stands.

…

_ It was like being a mother watching someone torturing your child and you couldn’t do anything to save them while it happened right in front of your eyes. _

_ That was how Yuya felt as the Doctor started doing things to Odd-Eyes’s card. Just like him, the Doctor scanned the card while shocking it, burned it, and even stabbed holes through it all the while Yuya could only lay there and listen to his dragon crying out in pain. _

_ “Stop it!” Yuya cried, not being able to take much more of this. Him being tortured was one thing but his dragon was a whole different story. “Can’t you see that you are killing him!?” _

_ “That exactly the point, my boy.” The Doctor stated, holding up the card to show to Yuya and Yuya could feel his tears overflowing from seeing the horrible shape his dragon’s card was in now. “The only way I will stop is if you let him out.” _

_ “Why won’t you understand that I’m not hiding anyone!” _

_ “Very well then. I didn’t want it to come to this but you left me no choice.” _

_ Yuya would never forget what happened next. The image was forever burnt into his brain of the Doctor taking the edges of Odd-Eyes Dragon and ripping the card in half before casually dropping the halves to the ground, stepping on them in the process as he made his way over his his desk. _

_ Yuya was outright horrified into silence as he stared down at his monster or what was left of it anyway. Odd-Eyes didn't deserve that, neither of them deserved what has been happening to them. _

_ Yuya’s fists tightened at his side as his pendant started to glow. _

_ Neither of them deserved this. _

_ Yuya felt anger. All this pain and torture that he has been through. He wanted the Doctor to experience too. _

_ Odd-Eyes Dragon’s card halves started to glow the same shade of blue that his Pendulum was. _

He wanted him to pay.

_ “Huh?” The Doctor turned around when he noticed the glow from the card and Yuya’s pendant. “What in the-” _

**_“DIE!!!”_ ** _ Yuya screamed, feeling whatever energy he had left that was keeping him afloat leaving his body and unleashing it onto the Doctor.   _

…

_ What is happening?  _ Ruri wondered as she ran as fast as she could to the stadium.  _ Was that Academia or was that…? _

Ruri shook her head. Even after all that she just saw, she couldn’t believe that Yuto would turn against them like that even when the proof was staring right at her in the face. She needed more answers and the only way she could get them was to find Yuto again. Still, how was she going to do that when she couldn’t even find out where she was? The members of the Resistance found out that Academia came from another world so was this it? No it couldn’t be. These people didn’t look like they were fit to fight in a war. Similar to the people of Heartland, they were fleeing for their lives at just the sight of the flames and cries.

Ruri stopped to caught her breath, now standing at the entrance to the stadium. Just as she was about to enter, she paused when she heard a roar coming from above. The Xyz User looked up and her eyes widen when she saw Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon leaving the stadium with someone in its claws and Yuto riding on the back of his dragon.

Ruri covered her mouth in horror. “Yuto, you didn’t…”

Whether he heard her voice of not, Yuto glanced down at her regardless. 

_ So you followed me to Standard, Bird?  _ He thought. His grey eyes narrowed at her but other then that, he did nothing as Dark Rebellion shot across the sky and into a wormhole that appeared out of nowhere in the sky, closing behind them as soon as they entered, leaving Ruri to stand there in other shock at what she just saw.

…

_ It was hard to breath. _

_ The eleven-year-old was huddled in a corner, holding his Odd-Eyes  _ Pendulum _ Dragon close to his chest to protect his monster as while as to comfort himself thought his pain. He could feel the spirit of his dragon nuzzling him with its long red tail wrapped around him protectively as he tried to focus on breathing. In and out. In and out. _

_ “What is...happening to...me...?” Yuya wondered as he glanced to the opposite side of the room. There, laying on the bloody floor, was the Doctor or what was left of him anyway. His body was mutilated to the point that he was barely recognizable with his limbs and intestines thrown all over the place.  _

_ Yuya closed his eyes at the sight, not because he was disgusted at what  _ he _ just did but because he  _ actually enjoyed it.

_ “I’m a monster.” _

_ “I wouldn’t say that, Yuya-kun~” _

_ Yuya froze at that. He opened his watery eyes and looked up to see someone sitting on the edge of the table he was strapped onto, having broken free of it when he unleashed that burst of energy. Yuya tried to back away but his body wasn’t responding.  _

_ “W-who are...you...?” Yuya asked fearfully at the figure’s appearance. The person was dressed in a pale hooded robe with a pale faceless mask that Yuya could see his reflection in and god, he looked awful. His crimson eyes were bloodshot, he was extremely underweight that you could see his bones from underneath his torn clothing, and he looked like he was about to drop dead at any moment. _

_ “Oh just a spirit who has come to start a chain of events, my little jester, by helping you see the light.” _

_ Yuya blinked in confusion before his eyes widen in realization on what he meant due to his own appearance. “Are...are you...Death? Have you...come to send me to...the afterlife?” _

_ “Death” chuckled behind his mask, making Yuya feel even more unease. “I guess you could say I am. I have sent many to Z-ARC and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. But to answer your second question, yes, you are dying. Your body is finally at its limits, Sakaki Yuya. In all honestly, you should’ve died a long time ago just from the shocks alone to your brain but our master couldn’t allow that to happen before he sent me back into this time era to get you.” _

_ “To...get...me…?” It was getting harder to breath and almost impossible to keep his eyes open anymore. _

_ “Oh yes, we simply can’t allow you to die, not in the way that Akaba Leo had planned for you to anyway once he found our master was indeed inside you. After all, you are one of us and you will come to discover that truth once you are reborn anew. But for now, sleep brother. You deserve it after the hell that trash put you through and once you awake, will we take our revenge on the Academia that tried to destroy us both.” _

_ Somehow, those words put Yuya at ease and with a simple lick to the forehead from his dragon, Sakaki Yuya passed away.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe...yeah...that just happened. Yuya just died...twice...in the past and present...But hey, Prince Lily is here finally! YAY! If you know me, you know he's my favorite of the counterparts. Speaking of Yuri, him and Yuya are going to be the main focus of the next chapter as I finish Yuya and Yuri's backstory...yes, their backstories are connected and no, that's not just do to bias...yet...
> 
> So what did you guys think of this mess? What do you think of Yuya's backstory so far and what do you think is going to happen to our demonic tomato now? Two words...nothing good.


	5. Rebirth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after that ending that we shall never speak off, it made me decided to just suck it up and finish this god damn chapter. Remember what I said about chapter 4 being the nightmare, I take it all back. This thing has so far been the hardest chapter that I have written for this story yet but that's mostly due to the fact that so much happens in this chapter. This chapter continues directly from how chapter 4 ended and like the last one, takes place in the past and present. This thing is 16,211 words long so hopefully the wait was worth it in length. I don't know about story wise but *shrug*. And to those that have seen the tag update, I'll get to the major one at the end but from this point forward, as if things weren't dark enough, they are about to get a lot darker so beware. 
> 
> In lighter news, 108 kudos! You guys are amazing! And you know what else is amazing?! I got fanart for this!  
> http://zarc-yuuya.tumblr.com/post/159050995788/requested-from-darkzorua100-based-of-her  
> Big shout out to Zarc-Yuya over on Tumblr for drawing Yuya and Yuto! Yugo and Yuri should be coming soon and when they are done, I'll put them here too for everyone to see as well.

A long time ago, the Four Dimensions used to be one world. However, thanks to a girl named Akaba Ray, that single world turned into four or at least that’s what everyone believed. Yes, there were Four Dimensions and no more but there was also another place between the four of them. It was null and non existing but it was a space that kept the other four worlds from ever colliding into each other, a gravitational field if you will. This was the place that four individuals lived away from the rest of the worlds, their home away from their home dimensions, and where Yuto took the lifeless form of Sakaki Yuya to.

Entering through a motion detector door into what appeared to be a living room of sorts, Yuto set Yuya’s body down on one of their couches. The Xyz Counterpart stared down at the wide-eyed and lifeform of his Standard Counterpart before looking out of the large glass window towards the Standard Dimension. 

Truly it was amazing what Zarc created for his halves through their dragons. When Zarc splited into the four of them, before his dragons ended up in their possessions, they came together and created the Void, a kind of air space in between the dimensions where the counterparts could live in secret away from their homelands as they plotted their revenge against humanity and especially  _ her.  _ It reminded Yuto of a spaceship almost, like the one he read about in one of those children’s books back in Heartland during his childhood. Shame that he hasn’t found any real aliens though...

“Gentlemen! I have some amazing news to share with you all!”

Yuto looked over his shoulder to see Yugo entering the room with a large grin on his face. The Synchro Duelist’s white cloak was stained red, making it appear pink in color from far away but close up, Yuto easily was able to tell from the smell alone that Yugo didn’t decided to print it red to match Yuya’s.

“I am happy to report that the Synchro Dimension has a new...what happened to Yuya…?” Yugo paused in whatever he was going to say first as soon as he noticed Yuya completely still with his eyes and mouth wide open in almost a horror-like expression on their furniture.

“Ray’s Flower happened that’s what.” Yuto shook his head as he glanced back over at their look alike. Feeling almost sick at having to look at him like this, Yuto placed a hand over Yuya’s face, closing both his eyes and mouth before he continued. “I was about to card Ray’s Bird when master called to me to get to Yuya. When I arrived in Standard, I found the Flower attacking him with her bracelet and the next thing I knew, Yuya was dead.”

It took Yugo a mere five seconds for Yuto’s words to stink in and when they did…

“What do you mean he’s dead?!”

“I mean he’s dead dead. What do you think I mean?”

“Well you are saying it like it's a normal thing!”

“It is normal. From the looks of things, he was already dead when you first met him.”

Now that wasn’t something Yugo was expecting to hear when Yuto stated that Yuya was...dead...

“Wait...what do you mean he was already dead?!” Yugo questioned, making sure he was hearing this right.

“I don’t understand it either. Like you, I didn’t even notice the simple fact for the longest time until Yuya decided to get a little up close in my personal space when he came to the Xyz Dimension not to long ago.” Yuto flinched slightly at the memory of it all. “That’s when I heard it or rather I didn’t hear it. His heart wasn’t beating, Yugo. Yuya might be a demon but his body sure isn’t, not fully anyway for all we know. So unless humans can start living as the undead, that is a sure fine sign that he isn’t alive. Still,” Yuto looked down at Yuya’s form fully, “that bracelet did something to him. I didn’t dare get close to the Flower out of fear of it having the same effect on me so I sent Dark Rebellion to pick him up and bring him back here but I don’t know what’s wrong with Yuya to fix him.”

Yuto knew that there had to be a way to get Yuya up and moving again. If there wasn’t, Zarc would be raging right now but instead he had gone silent, almost like he was testing them to figure this out themselves. Yuto let out an annoyed sigh at that as he looked back over at his Synchro Counterpart. Yugo’s face was curled back in pure outrage, his turquoise eyes starting to glow a bright green as he stared down at Yuya’s form. 

“The Flower’s Bracelet did this?”

“From what I saw, yes.”

“That’s all I need to know.”

Yuto said or did nothing to stop him as with a flip of his white (pink) robe, Yugo left the facility with an increasing darkness hovering around him. 

…

“ **_My, I didn’t expect you to out right lie to your favorite brother, Yuri.”_ **

_ “I wouldn’t call it lying, master. I’m just bending the truth for my little jester’s sake.”  _

_ A pair of golden eyes watched the figure in the pale robes, Death, or as he referred to him as Yuri, pick up the body of Sakaki Yuya and laid him back down on the table he was tortured on. _

_ “Besides,” Yuri looked over at the dark shadowy figure. He had removed his mask a while ago now revealing a pair of predatory purple irises with a matching twisted smile underneath his hood. “You wanted to see him murder that foolish Doctor too, didn’t you, my lord?” _

**_“You would be correct. I can’t stand the sight of those who hurt my servants but the pain was good for him. It finally made him come to his senses and awaken his instincts once more. Now,”_ ** _ the shadows hovering around Yuri drew in closer once Yuri pulled out a knife from his pocket,  _ **_“it is time for his rebirth and then we can focus on stage two.”_ **

_ “Indeed,” Yuri’s wicked smile widen as he made a large cut on the palm of his hand with the knife. After enough blood had surfaced from the cut, he took the knife and ran the blade through his blood, effectively coating the blade in his plasma. After that was done, the darkness around him made its way into the blade until it was glowing a sickly black. Yuri then turned to face Yuya. He took his mask out and placed it back on with his bloody hand, giving the once pale, faceless mask a nice bloody spot right in the middle, while holding the knife right above Yuya’s chest where his heart would be with his other. _

_ “Time to wake up, my dear brother.” _

_ The knife lowered and stabbed Sakaki Yuya directly through his heart- _

_ -and crimson eyes shot up with a scream.  _

…

It was like reliving the nightmare all over again only this time, she knew who caused it which only made things worse in her eyes.

Kurosaki Ruri walked around the empty stadium in out right horror. Her pink eyes scanned the damage that was done. After everything that she’ve seen in Heartland, she honestly thought she would be used to this by now but no, it only continued to get worse. It wasn’t until she saw the bodies of a mother trying to shield her child that made Ruri lose her lunch, not that there was much to lose.

“Yuto, why?” Ruri sobbed, holding her head in confusion. “Why would you do such a thing? What did Academia do to you?”

True, she had no real proof that Academia was behind any of this. Yuto even said himself that he carded the remaining soldiers that were in Heartland but she honestly didn’t know what to believe at this point. She was still coming to terms with the fact that sweet, kindhearted Yuto had turned into a cold blooded, emotionless killer. 

“Oh good, you decided to stick around, Flower. This makes things a lot easier.”

Ruri didn't even have time to turn around when she heard someone speaking to her. The next thing she knew, she felt something wrap itself around her neck and quickly tighten to the point where she couldn’t breath. Ruri struggled to get herself free as her air support was being cut off as whoever was attacking her with what Ruri could guess was a whip was walking towards her.

“Struggling is useless and honestly, it is annoying me.”

Her lungs were on fire and everything was going black. It wasn’t until her attacker back kicked her to the ground was when Ruri lost consciousness. 

…

_ Yuri gasped for breath as another member of the Obelisk Force collapsed to the ground from defeat. The small eleven-year-old wiped the sweat off his forehead just before the white band, with a large blue jewel in the middle of it, that was wrapped around his wrist glew orange and within seconds, he struggled to keep himself standing, using the walls of the training room as support, as the bio-band sucked out more of his energy.  _

_ “Hehehe, my, doesn’t someone look out of it. Just how much more do you think you can take, Yuri-sama?” _

_ “Shut...up…” Yuri was barely able to say as he looked over, or at least tried to, at his opponents, the Obelisk Force, Academia's enforcer unit, that seemed to be doubling. Every time he would defeat one, two more would arrive to take their place. Normally, Yuri wouldn’t have a problem with this. The Obelisk Force, along with everyone else at this Academia, were nothing but pushovers and Akaba Leo must have realized that.  _

“Huh?” Yuri stared down at the band that was placed around his arm, watching as it clicked into place. “What’s this, Professor?”

“A new endurance system I’m testing out, Yuri, and you happen to be the test subject.”

_ And that’s how Yuri found himself facing off against row after row of Obelisk Force members. They weren’t to difficult to take down but every time Yuri would take one out, he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker that he felt like he was going to be sick. He didn’t understand what was happening to him until he saw the jewel on his bio-band start to glow and that’s when he realized that it was the machine that was sucking away his life force like a leech.  _

The Professor wasn’t kidding when he said endurance training.  _ Yuri thought with a gasp of breath.  _ Still, why pick me to test this thing out? I’m more than capable enough of surviving this.

_ Even though he was thinking that, in all honest, he didn’t know how much longer he could last. His vision was getting blurry and he could barely hold onto his cards, let alone stand up. The only thing that was keeping him from collapsing on the spot was his pride and Starve Venom Fusion Dragon roaring down at him like a never ending alarm clock.  _

**_“Weakling! Don’t you dare give up now!”_ ** _ It hissed down at him. _

_ If Yuri had the strength, he would have yelled something back but he didn’t need to. The Obelisk Force solved his problem for him. _

_ “I activate the magic card, Change of Heart.” One of the Obelisk Force members announced, slipping the card into his duel disk. “This allows me to take control of a monster on your side of the field until the end of this turn. I choose your Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!” _

What?!  _ Yuri stumbled as he turned to look at his precious dragon. It let out a resentful roar as it was forced onto the Obelisk Force member's side of the field.  _

_ “How...dare...you.” Yuri hissed in disgusted between breaths. _

_ But the Obelisk Force simply laughed. “Just be thankful that we are kind enough to allow your own dragon to finish you off, Yuri-sama.” _

_ Yuri narrowed his eyes at that but he couldn’t say anything against that remark. He had no cards on his field and nothing in his hand that could save him. The only thing he had protecting him was Starve Venom and even the Obelisk Force weren’t dumb enough to try and destroy the toxic dragon. But now that they had control of his only protection, Yuri knew for a fact that he was a goner. _

_ “Now, Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, attack your former master directly!” _

So this is what losing feels like.  _ Yuri mused to himself with a tired laugh as he looked at his hand, waiting for his dragon’s attack to hit home when he noticed something. _

_ Predaplant Sarraceniant was in his hand. He must have been so out of it that he didn’t even notice it behind the Fusion cards in his hand. Sarraceniant’s effect would allow it to summon itself from his hand when he was being attacked directly and when it would be destroyed, it would destroy Starve Venom along with it. Lucky for him, he had no other monsters on his field so Starve Venom’s destruction effect wouldn’t harm him and with Sarraceniant’s other effect, he could add a Predaplant card from his deck to his hand when it is destroyed. On his next turn, he could use his Re-Fusion spell card to bring back Starve Venom and use the other Polymerization in his hand to fuse it and the Predaplant monster in his hand that he would add with Sarraceniant’s effect to summon out Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon. _

_ He still had a chance to save himself after all. _

_ “I-” Yuri tried to grab the card but as soon as he moved, his body caved in on him and he collapsed to the ground with a groan. He tried to stand back up but it was no use. His body wasn’t responding. His vision was fading quickly after that as his dragon’s poisonous tail headed straight for him. _

No, this couldn’t be the end.  _ Yuri thought bitterly.  _ I can’t lose like this!

**_“Don’t worry, little one, this isn’t your time to lose.”_ **

_ Yuri’s eyes shot wide open. _

_ “Wha-” _

_ “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! It is my honor to present to you the amazing Sakaki Yuya disappearing act!” _

_ Everything was then put into fast motion that Yuri couldn’t keep up with it. The last thing he could remember clearly before his mind and body collapsed on him was the sound of his dragon stopping mid attack along with the sound of what appeared to be a horse letting out a nay as someone got off of it and made its way over to him. _

…

She looked so peaceful while she slept, Yugo thought, staring down at Ruri’s knocked out form with cold eyes, so peaceful that it was sicking.

_ Who said you could have any peace after what you did?!  _

Yugo reached down and picked up Ruri by her long purplish-black hair. She let out a groan of pain at her hair being pulled but other then that, she was still out like a light which only furthered to annoy Yugo even more. 

He brought her face closer to his to study it and he growled at the resemblance like an animal.

_ Why do you have to share the same face as  _ her _?  _ Yugo gritted his teeth in pure anger at the very thought of that traitor he once called his best friend until he knew the truth.

_ “Don’t think about that witch, sweetheart. She’s not worth it.” _

Yugo looked over his shoulder at that, expecting to see someone standing there but only found nothing but air. The Synchro Duelist sighed at this with a shake of his head. He didn’t know why he continued to do that when he knew he would find no one there whenever he hear someone speaking to him when he was alone. He knew it wasn’t Zarc because unlike his boss, this presence didn’t feel dark in the slightest and he was pretty sure that Zarc wasn’t a girl. He could tell by the tone of its voice that it had to belong to a female. 

“You don’t have to tell me that, voice lady.” Yugo replied as he let go of the Xyz User’s hair, watching as her body hit metal before reaching over to pick up a bucket of seawater. “And I thought I told you to stop calling me that?”

No reply came but strange enough, Yugo was fine with that. Usually he would get angry when someone ignored him or called him something other than his name, the main reason why he hated a certain counterpart of his so much, but for some reason, he could never get angry at this voice in his head. If anything, her presence seemed to calm Yugo down when he felt like he was able to go berserk just like she did when he felt ready to out right kill Ruri just by looking at her.

“Whatever then,” Yugo muttered before he dumped the bucket of seawater onto Ruri’s face to get her awake. 

Between the stress to her head from her hair behind pulled and having seawater rained down into her mouth, it wasn’t that hard to get Ruri awake. Her eyes shot opened in surprise before leaning on her side to cough out the water that ran down her throat. However, what she didn’t expect to see when she awoke was the sight of the ground directly below her. 

“What in the-” The Bracelet Girl’s voice was raw from the water but her senses were quickly wide awake, screaming at her “danger”. Why you might ask?

Because Ruri quickly found out that she was ontop of a large metal crane that was directly over the docks of some shipping port. 

Ruri gulped at the sight. She was never one for horror movies but Shun told her about the plot for the  _ Saw  _ movies during one Halloween to try and scare her. At the time, Ruri made light of the whole franchise, thinking there was no way that one person could kidnap a bunch of people by himself and then strap them down into his world of torture without them waking up during any of that, but was now starting to have second thoughts at the situation before her.

“Get up, Flower.”

Ruri looked over in fright at hearing that voice. She knew that it had to be the person who knocked her out but she wasn’t expecting-

“Yuto?” 

Yugo’s eye twitched but he forced himself to remain calm. Just like the voice told him, they weren’t worth it and getting anger wasn’t going to help his chances of getting Yuya back to normal, not now anyway.

“My name is Yugo.” He stated much to his annoyance.

“Fusion?”

About what he just said about remaining calm, he took it all back.

Yugo’s eyes glowed slightly as he shouted, “I said YUGO NOT FUSION!” 

Ruri flinched back out of fright at his outburst. Right away she noticed the difference. This guy might look like Yuto, he even sounded slightly like Yuto, but he wasn’t Yuto. When she last saw him, he was wearing a pure black robe so she found it strange why he would suddenly change into a white one. And after getting a good look at him, she noticed what else was different. It was hard to tell with the hood on but Ruri could make out blue hair with yellow bangs in the front, way different from Yuto’s black and lavender hair. His eyes were also a different color, this guy’s being turquoise while Yuto’s were grey. If their faces were overlaid with each other, they would be a perfect match but other than that, there genes were completely different. It wasn’t just that either. Their personalities were completely different. Even though Yuto was acting way different since the last time she saw him, Yuto wasn’t one to lash out on people unleash you REALLY made him mad and that fact didn’t seem to change. He still seemed like the calm individual she once knew so who was this guy? Yuto never mentioned he had a twin, let alone any family at all. It was rare to see orphans in Heartland so that’s why Yuto never liked to talk about it so neither Shun or her brought up that topic. Still-

“Why do you look so much like Yuto?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“Didn’t you hear me, Flower? I said stand.”

Ruri yelp as the sound of a whip cracking against the metal beams next to her. Her eyes widen in horror at the sight of the long weapon coming out of Yugo’s duel disk. His turquoise eyes, which Ruri could have sworn were glowing and almost slitted looking, were staring at her with some much hated that quickly made Ruri stand up, not daring to test her luck with her captor.

“Now was that so hard?” Yugo rolled his eyes in annoyance before continuing. “Now listen up, Flower, I’m going to make this as simple as possible for you. I’m going to kill you. Unlike two of my brothers, I’m no sadist but after what you did to one of them, I think I’ll make this an exception.”

Ruri looked like she was about to say something to that but backed off when Yugo cracked his whip at her again.

“Oh no, you can only talk when I SAY you can talk. Now tell me, Flower, how long can an average human body survive without oxygen?”

Since he said that she couldn’t speak unless he told her she could, Ruri didn’t know if that was a trick question or not to use as an excuse to try and hit her with his whip. Thinking that it was, she said nothing to that which seemed to be the wrong move on her part.

“Answer me!” 

Ray flinched as the whip got awfully close to hitting her leg that time, causing her to feel the sparks from where it hit the metal. 

“...I...I don’t know the exact number but I know it isn’t for a long time.”

He must have expected a number from her because he wasn’t amused at her guess. He merely rolled his eyes before answering. “Your brain cells begin to die at a simple minute. At three, you can get some serious brain damage and if you still haven’t got any oxygen into your lungs between five to ten minutes, you are dead. Now, amuse me, how long do you think a normal human can survive underwater for?”

“Uh...isn’t that the same thing?”

Ruri screamed and fell to her knees when this time, the whip did connect with her leg, striking it so hard that it tore her already worn out grey pants and left behind a nice big bruise.

“In a way yes,” Yugo answered casually while Ruri was still in pain from the attack. “Humans can only survive underwater for about a few minutes. However, if you trained for it, rare people have shown they can survive underwater for around twenty minutes by breathing in only the oxygen that makes up one part of the water. Truly, it is amazing when you think about it, but that’s not my point.”

Yugo pushed a button on his duel disk, causing the whip to disappear. Ruri went silent at noticing that. It doubled her fear of him in a matter of seconds. At least with the whip, she knew what to expect. Now she didn’t know what he was going to do if she said something wrong he didn’t like on this quiz of his.

“Human bodies are so weak.” Yugo continued as he looked down at his own hands. He was wearing white gloves, Ruri noticed, along with some kind of white body suit underneath his robe. His face was curled back in disgust as he turned his hands over, examining them. “To think that they can do so much damage as a whole but in reality, they are nothing but fragile glass that can be broken if they are deprived of what they need most.”

Ruri stood back up on shaky legs. Her ankle had to be strained from where the whip hit it, Ruri perceived, biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming in pain once more.

“What does any of this have to do with me though?” Ruri really hope she wasn’t making a bad decision by asking this. “And why do you keep calling me “Flower?”

Yugo looked back at her with narrowed eyes. “Don’t act dumb. I see your bracelet! I know that bracelet anywhere!It marks you as one of Ray’s reincarnations! And since this is the Standard Dimension, this was where the Flower was laid to rest, not Moon, not Bird, and most certainly not Wind!” Ruri flinched back at the way Yugo’s face twisted in so much hated at the word  _ Wind.  _ “And if that wasn’t enough proof, you were at the scene of the crime! You  _ killed  _ Yuya and for that, I will make you pay.”

As if Ruri wasn’t confused enough as it was. She glanced down at her bracelet, the yellow jewel in the middle shining in the sunlight. She had no idea what Yugo was talking about. Who was Ray? What was he talking about with Flowers, the Moon, Birds, and Wind? Who was Yuya and why did he think that she killed him? Was he is brother? Was he someone that was killed in the stadium? If Yugo was out right convinced that she was the one that did it, maybe it wasn’t Yuto after all. Half of Ruri wanted to believe that was true but at the same time, she didn’t want to believe that someone who looked like her was the one that killed so many innocent people and for what reason? 

Yugo activated the duel disk around his arm. “Here's how things are going to go, Flower. We are dueling and once I beat you, I’m knocking you off the top of this crane into the ocean. At the point of death, I’ll pull you out and you are coming back with me to fix Yuya. If you can’t do that, I’m throwing you back into the water and I’ll personally drown you myself. If you can however, I’ll let Yuya take his revenge on you himself.”

Ruri really didn’t like either of those options as she stared at his duel disk.

“If you really wanted me to do something for you, why go through all this trouble?” Ruri couldn’t help but ask. 

“Because not only do I personally want to get back at you for what you did to Yuya, I also want to see if Ray’s precious little flower is more human than natural energy so I can figure out how to kill the rest of you so you won’t ever split us apart again. It would be like killing two birds with one stone.” Yugo paused at that with a silent curse. “Damn it, that would have worked way been better if you were Ray’s Bird…” He mumbled that last part under his breath.

Ruri looked back at him. She was still very confused on just what the heck was happening at the moment and with her leg in the terrible shape that it was in now, she couldn’t make a run for it down the crane and try and escape. It seemed she didn’t have any choice in the matter but to duel him. Maybe if she beat him, she could prove to him that she wasn’t who he thought she was and maybe get some answers to why he looked like Yuto and everything else he has been going on about for the past five minutes.

Ruri activated her duel disk. “Alright then, Yugo. I don’t understand what you think I did to you but if dueling is the only way I can get myself out of this mess, I accept.”

“Good because you didn’t have any choice in the matter.”

**Ruri: 4000**

**Yugo: 4000**

Yugo went first as he held up his card. “When I control no monsters, I can special summon Speedroid Terrortop from my hand.”

A monster made up of multiple red tops chained together appeared in front of Yugo (ATK: 1200 DEF: 600).

_ Speedroid? I never heard of that archetype before.  _ Ruri was getting a very bad feeling as Yugo took a card out of his deck and held it up to show her.

“When Terrortop is summoned, I can add a Speedroid monster from my deck to my hand. I choose the tuner monster, Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice and then I’ll summon it.”

A blue three sided dice with a red eye on each side appeared next to the Yugo’s first monster.

“Tuner monster?” Ruri was bewitched by the term, never hearing of a monster like that.

“I now tune my level 3 Speedroid Terrortop with my level 3 Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!”

_ "Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 6! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!" _

From the two monsters came a burst of blinding light. Ruri had to shield her eyes as the weaponised blue kendama materialized in attack position (ATK: 2200 DEF: 1600).

Once the light died down, Ruri could only stare at the machine in both curiosity and in horror at the unknown type of Extra Deck monster. 

_ Synchro Summon? What was that?  _ Ruri wondered. 

“I activate Hi-Speedroid Kendama’s effect.” Yugo took his Terrortop from his graveyard and held it up to show her. “By banishing a Speedroid from my graveyard, I can inflict 500 point of damage to your life points.” 

“What?” Ruri tried to duck when Kendama fired a blue beam from the tip of its blade at her but with her ankle in the bad shape that it was, that proved to be useless so she took the attack full on. Ruri screamed as just like her duel against Yuto, the damage felt to real to just be normal solid vision as she fell to her knees.

**Ruri: 3500**

**Yugo: 4000**

“And that was just the beginning.”

…

_ Yuri let out a groan as he shifted in his sleep. When did his bed become so uncomfortable? His mattress felt like it was made out of rocks that were continuously stabbing him in the back and his pillow was also missing. Deciding to figure out what happened to his bed, violet eyes opened, expecting to see the purple walls of his dorm room at Academia but instead his first sight was of a pair of crimson eyes staring down at him only a few inches away from his face. _

_ “Hi!” _

_ “What the-” _

_ Yuri raised his head up in surprise which cause his forehead to collide with the person’s.  _

_ “Ouch!” _

_ Identical voices could be heard as Yuri placed a hand to his forehead in pain while the other person fell onto his back. _

_ “What the hell?” Yuri groaned as he turned to look over at the other person only for him to stop when he noticed where he was.  _ This is definitely not my bedroom.  _ Yuri noted right away. He seemed to be in some kind of cave, not a very deep one as the only light source, the entrance way, wasn’t that far off but where he had no idea.  _

_ “That’s my line.” _

_ Yuri looked back over at the person and was surprised to find that it was another kid but what really took him by surprise was his outfit. He wasn’t wearing an Academia uniform and the clothes that he was wearing looked like they been put through hell. They were torn in places while covered in blood in others. Out of pure curiosity, Yuri was about to ask what happened to this guy but paused and froze in disbelief as the person sat up and looked at him with watery eyes. _

He looks just like me…

_ “What was that for?!” The other boy cried as he rubbed his own sore head. _

Oh god, he even sounds like me…

_ “What the actual hell?” Yuri mumbled to himself in shock. _

_ His clone said nothing to that as he continued to look at him with a pout.  _

_ “You aren’t making a good first impression, brother.” _

Brother…?!

_ “Who are you?!” Yuri demanded, trying to get to his feet but he felt like someone just punched him in the gut. As soon as he tried to stand, he felt his body get heavy and heavy… _

_ “Hey easy now.” The boy was by his stand again in seconds as Yuri felt his body dropping. He caught him before his body totally collapse in on itself and helped him to his feet. “You are in pretty bad shape so don’t try to overdue.” _

What the Ra’s name is going on right now?  _ Yuri wondered in out right confusion as the boy aided him to his feet, using the cave wall as support for his back to lean against. Not knowing if this was some kind of trap or not, as soon as the boy let go of him, Yuri grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him in closer with what little strength he had at the moment and activated his duel disk, the purple blade now being held up against the boy’s throat.  _

_ “You didn’t answer my question.” Yuri growled. His arm was shaking slightly from the weight of the duel disk but he refused to lower his arm. “Who are you and why do you look like me?!” _

_ The boy didn’t look scare of the blade that was inches away from his throat. If anything he looked amused by it until Yuri asked his question. He blinked in surprise before he laughed.  _

Even his laugh sounds similar… _ Yuri through in disgust.  _

_ “Oh sorry! I guess we never did have an actual introduction now did we? I’m Sakaki Yuya and I’m you from the Standard Dimension! Lord Zarc and his servant, Death, told me all about you, Yuri, and how you brought me back from the dead with a mixture of your blood and his! I can’t thank you enough, brother, so the least I could do was save you from those evil...uh what do you call those guys in blue?” _

_ “...Obelisk Force…?” _

_ “Yes them! They were so mean to you, Yuri! How dare they pick on my brother! Those bullies! As if killing me wasn’t good enough for them, they even go after you to try and destroy our master! They even stole your dragon! Poor Starve Venom! He didn’t deserve to be handle by such fuel meanies! Oh speaking of which,” Yuya reached into his pocket and took out a card before handing it to Yuri, “I don’t think he likes me that much. He says I’m way too much like you and he can barely stand you as it is.” _

_ Narrowing his eyes, Yuri slowly lowered his duel disk to see what he was holding out to him. He glanced down at the card and his eyes widen slightly at noticing it was his Fusion Dragon. Not even thinking about it, his duel disk deactivated as he snatched his ace out of Yuya’s hand and held it close to him to his heart. _

**_“About time you got me back, you pathetic excuse for a duelist!”_ **

_ “Nice to have you back too.” Yuri mumbled under his breath sarcastically to his dragon but in all seriousness, he was happy. Even though his dragon was an absolute dick to him, Starve Venom was the closest thing Yuri had to a family, let alone a friend. Just having him back in his possession made Yuri feel like he was getting stronger. _

_ Sadly, he was brought back to reality when he heard that devilish laughter… _

_ “Oh how adorable!” _

_ Yuri narrowed his eyes as he looked back at Yuya who was smiling from ear to ear. He opened his mouth to say something, to question him further about what the heck he was talking about earlier, but Yuya cut him off before he even could. _

_ “Oh yeah, I totally forgot! You lost so much energy during that duel! Even with master’s powers healing you now through Starve Venom, you must be starving! Pun intended by the way! Wait here, I’ll go get you something!” _

_ “Wha-” Yuri blinked in confusion, watching as Yuya took off to somewhere outside the cave. _

**_“Don’t worry your pretty little head about that zombie, you idiot. You can trust him more than anyone here.”_ **

_ Yuri looked back down at his Fusion Dragon in surprise. _

_ “Just what do you mean by that?” _

**_“Because you created him. He has no choice but to be loyal to you.”_ **

…

Ruri struggled to stand back up, gasping for breath as she looked over at Yugo. Whatever doubt she had about him being Yuto was completely gone as soon as he did that foreign summoning method.

_ Synchro Summon?  _ Ruri gulped, looking over at Yugo’s monster. This was completely new to her so not only was she fighting against someone who made it clear that he was going to try and kill her but she was fighting him blind. 

_ Not only that,  _ Ruri looked down before, sweat running down her forehead at how high up they were,  _ if I do fight back, there is a chance that he could get hurt as well.  _ After all that she’s been through, she couldn’t bare to see another person get hurt, whether they were friend or foe, and it really didn’t help that he looked so much like Yuto.

Ruri closed her eyes at that. She was getting flashbacks to Heartland where Yuto was about to card her with the most emotionless look she has ever seen on a human being.

_ Don’t think about him, Ruri, just focus on this guy.  _

Ruri let out a breath of air as she opened her eyes and drew her card. “When I control no monsters, I can special summon Lyrical Luscinia - Turquoise Warbler from my hand.”

A tiny yellow and blue tip feathered bird girl appeared on Ruri’s field (ATK: 100 DEF: 100).

“When Turquoise Warbler is special summoned, I can special summon another Lyrical Luscinia. I choose Lyrical Luscinia - Cobalt Sparrow.”

A small brown feathered bird girl appeared next to the first (ATK: 0 DEF: 100).

“Cobalt Sparrow allows me to add a level 1 Winged Beast monster from my deck to my hand when it is special summoned. I choose my Lyrical Luscinia - Sapphire Swallow and with  Sapphire Swallow’s effect, I can special summon it and another level 1 Winged Beast from my name while I control one on my field. I special summon another Cobalt Sparrow.”

Another Cobalt materialized next to the first along with a blue feathered bird girl along with it (ATK: 100 DEF: 0).

“I overlay my four Lyrical Luscinia monsters!”

_ "Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take brilliant flight! Xyz Summon! Dance in the sky! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale!" _

Ruri’s ace monster appeared on the field in all of its glory (ATK: 0 DEF: 0).

_ The flower can Xyz Summon? _ Yugo looked surprised at that.  _ And why is it a bird? She is Ray’s flower, not Ray’s Bird. The bird is in Xyz, isn’t she? _

“Assembly Nightingale gains 200 ATK for each overlay unit she has.” Ruri continued her turn as her monster’s attack went up (ATK: 0-800 DEF: 0).

_ Assembly Nightingale can attack directly and up to the number of overlay units she has,  _ Ruri thought looking at her ace,  _ if all four attacks land, Yugo will take 3200 points of damage, leaving him with only 800 life points left. However if I do that, all the attacks could very well push him off the edge.  _

“Well what are you waiting for?” Yugo questioned, snapping Ruri out of her thought train. “Aren’t you going to do something with that monster? You obviously summoned it for a reason.”

“I…” Ruri glanced at him and for a second, she saw Yuto standing there with his kind smile instead of Yugo. She quickly looked down at her hand and shook her head.

_ No...I can’t. Even if he isn’t Yuto, I can’t risk pushing him off the edge just to save myself. _

“I...I place one card face down, turn end.” Ruri lowered her gaze as a face down appeared on her field.

_ Yes, go ahead and attack me if you dare, Flower. Your weak attack point monster won’t fool me. I...wait what?! _

“You...end your turn…?”

“Yes,” Ruri said looking over at him, sadly. “I don’t plan on losing to you but I can’t just attack you. You could very well have died if I did.”

_ “I don’t want to see you die, Zarc…” _

Yugo growled in pure frustration, placing a head to his forehead when it started to burn. 

**_“Ray, you little bitch. Even in your new forms, you still find me pitiful, don’t you?”_ **

“Master…” Yugo closed his eyes when the pain started to get worse at Zarc’s angry presents in his mind. He was just as mad but he couldn’t do anything about it if his boss decided to take his anger out on him.

“Yugo…?” Ruri looked concerned when Yugo looked to be in pain.

“...fine, have it your way.” Yugo opened his eyes which were now glowing a terrifying green as he drew his card. “I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts.”

A mechanical horse appeared on the field next to the Synchro Monster (ATK: 1100 DEF: 1100).

“When Horse Stilts is summoned, I can special summon a level 4 or lower Speedroid monster from my hand. I special summon Red-Eyed Dice with this effect.”

The yellow sided dice appeared (ATK: 100 DEF: 100).

_ With Red-Eyed Dice’s effect, I can change Horse Stilts’s level to 6 to synchro summon Clear Wing and then you will be sorry, Flower.  _ Yugo thought.

“I-”

_ “No.” _

Yugo paused. Zarc’s painful aura was disappearing from his mind, making his eyes return to normal, only for it to be replaced by the serene presents of that female voice.

_ “She’s not worth it, my dearest Yugo, so don’t give into her taunts.” _

Yugo looked over his shoulder when he felt the wind brush over him almost gently, knocking his hood over while at the same time Ruri was trying to hold her ground as the wind picked up around her so strongly that she felt herself being pushed closer to the edge of the crane.

_ When did it get so windy all of the sudden?  _ She wondered in fright as she looked behind her at how far down it was to the bottom. 

Yugo looked back over at Ruri. Just a simple push and she would fall…

Pulling his hood back up, Yugo continued his turn.

“I turn my level 4 Horse Stilts with my level 1 Red-Eyed Dice!”

_ "Lively soul of swordplay. Come forth now, Level 5! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!" _

_ Another Synchro Monster.  _ Ruri thought watching as it descended next to Yugo’s first one (ATK: 2000 DEF: 1000).  _ I better play it safe if he tries to attack. _

“I activate Lyrical Luscinia - Assembly Nightingale’s effect. By detaching an overlay unit, for the rest of this turn, Lyrical Luscinia monsters can’t be destroyed by battle or card effects and I take no battle damage.” Ruri explained as one of her monster’s materials turned into a shield around the bird lady and in turned lowered its attack (ATK: 800-600 DEF: 0).

Yugo looked annoyed but he simply took a card from his hand and placed it into his duel disk. “I activate the continuous spell card, Speedroid Whirlwind. Since I control a Speedroid monster, after a Speedroid monster battles, you get dealt with half of its attack points as effect damage.”

“What?!” Ruri looked out right horrified. One of Assembly Nightingale's weakness, it could protect from battle damage but not effect damage.

“Wasn’t expecting that now were you, Flower?” Yugo was smiling darkly now at her expression. “Sure, the battle damage might be zero but there is more to a duel than battle damage. Now go, Hi-Speedroid Kendama! Attack Assembly Nightingale!”

The machine monster changed at the bird, ready to stab right through it but thanks to Assembly Nightingale’s effect, it was protected by its shield and Ruri didn’t take any battle damage.

“Your bird might have survived but your life points are a different story.” Yugo’s spell started to glow as its effect took place. “Thanks to Speedroid Whirlwind, you now take half of Kendama’s attack as damage.”

A large gust of wind was unleashed from the continuous spell, blowing Ruri backwards for 1100.

**Ruri: 2400**

**Yugo: 4000**

“I now attack with Hi-Speedroid Chanbara and when Chanbara attacks, it gains 200 more attack!”

_ What?!  _ Ruri was knocked backwards as the force from Chanbara’s attack on Assembly Nightingale grew in power (ATK: 2000-2200 DEF: 1000) only for it to get negated once more due to its effect, however, thanks to Speedroid Whirlwind’s effect, Ruri took half of its attack points as damage instead.

**Ruri: 1200**

**Yugo: 4000**

_ Oh no!  _ The attack blew Ruri right off the crane. Lucky for the Bracelet Girl, it wasn’t too far and was quickly able to grab the edge of the metal beam, saving herself from falling to her doom. Ruri’s eyes widen in horror as she looked down below. At least his attack was over…

“I’m not done yet.” Yugo said, gesturing to his Synchro Monster. “Chanbara can attack twice per battle phase and when it attacks, it gains 200 more ATK points.”

Ruri watched as his monster’s point went up once more as it charged at her Xyz Monster (ATK: 2200-2400 DEF: 1000).

“Half of 2400 is 1200…” 

“All you have left, Flower.” Yugo stated, staring down at her. “This is the end for you!”

…

_ Yuri glanced out at the ocean, watching as the waves went back and forth. He was leaning against the rocky wall still, holding his side in pain. After Yuya left, Yuri tried to make a break for it, not because he was scared, no it was because he was so confused. Why did this person who claimed to be his brother look just like him? Yuri knew that twins looked and sounded alike but it didn’t make sense. Yuri grew up in Academia and as far as he knew, he never had any family to take care of him, let alone any siblings. The closest thing he ever had was Starve Venom and his dragon wasn’t exactly the motherly type.  _

_ So he planned on leaving, going to question the Professor about this. Surely he would know if Yuri would have any family or not but as soon as he tried to leave, the pain returned in full force from his duel, compliments of his Fusion Dragon.  _

**_“What did I just tell you, you stupid child?! You have no reason to leave! If anything, you are in better hands than you ever have been. If Leo caughts you, he will kill you on the spot.”_ **

_ “What the hell are you going on about now?” Yuri questioned his dragon with a tired expression. _

**_“Are you really that dense?! At the very beginning, I allowed this to slide since whether I liked it or not, Master Zarc had a reason to bring you here and that was for you to get stronger and it worked, maybe a little too well.”_ **

_ “You and Yuya keep bring up this ‘Master Zarc’. Would one of you two bother to tell me what so great about this ‘master’ of yours?” _

**_“He is you but at the same time he isn’t.”_ **

_ “Well geez, isn’t that helpful?” Yuri rolled his eyes as he looked back outside the cave. He should’ve realized right away that he was in one of the caves in the cliffside of the Academia island. No wonder it smelled like seawater and seagull droppings.  _

_ “Hey Lily!” _

_ Yuri looked over at that, watching as Yuya descended from a...pegasus? It was majestic whatever it was with a pure white body and wings with purple tips. Somehow Yuri didn’t find that all to odd at seeing one. After all, seeing someone you didn’t even know in the slightest that shared your face kinda takes away the shock from everything else. However… _

_ “Lily?” Yuri questioned with an eyebrow raised. _

_ “Yep!” Yuya beamed, hopping off his horse with a grin. “That is your name, isn’t it?” _

_ “No, it isn’t.” Yuri replied looking rather annoyed at that. His name was written in katakana so it had no real meaning and he honestly didn’t want it to have a meaning. He was just Yuri and that was the way he liked it, even though he honestly had no idea how he came to the conclusion that this was his name in the first place. He suppose that Starve Venom must have picked it out as his dragon, from what he had been told, was the one that has been looking after him ever since he was a baby and even before he was taken to Academia and meet Akaba Leo.  _

_ Yuya pouted like a child...which technically he was. He had to be around Yuri’s age as well which only served to freak him out even more about the whole same face (and voice) thing. If he was technically older, Yuri could’ve guessed he was him from the future or something (you know, if he dyed his hair a different color and got a new style for it, got color contexts, and changed his name in that time being). Academia had some impressive technology and he wouldn’t be surprised if the Professor has figured out how to time travel.  _

_ “Oh...but I like Lily! It is adorable!” _

_ “...excuse me…?” _

_ “Yeah! Lily the Magnificent! That sounds like the perfect, and yet adorable, stage name! Just imagine it! As we are bringing destruction onto those fools who killed us before, they will ask us who we are and we will answer as-” Yuya did a superhero pose, “-the grand magician, Sakaki Yuya, and his lovely assistant, Lily the Magnificent! Doesn’t that sound awesome, Lily?!” _

_ Yuri simply looked at him like he was on something while Starve Venom started laughing. _

**_“I take back what I said about him being a copy of you. He is way more entertaining than you will ever be.”_ **

_ “I will throw your card into the ocean and then we will see who gets the last laugh, you dumb lizard.” Yuri threatened under his breath before he turned back to Yuya to say something but it was the pegasus that spoke first...or in its case, neighed. _

_ “Oh!” Yuya turned back around to his horse. “Oh thanks for reminding me, Pony! It is lunch time!” _

_ Yuri blinked as he watched Yuya hop on over to the magical beast and took something out of pegasus’s saddle bag. _

_ “I didn’t know what you like, my bad for not asking before I left, so I got this!” _

_ Yuya turned around with a small plastic bag in hand. _

_ Yuri glanced at it. “Is that…?” _

_ “Candy!” Yuya exclaimed reaching into the bag and pulled out a sucker. Yuri could only stare at him as he ripped the wrapping off and popped it into his mouth. “What kid doesn’t love candy, Lily?! Everyone loves candy! Not only that, it is a quick way to get back energy! Yay for sugar rushes!” _

_ “I don’t think that is how energy works.” _

_ “Sure it is! I also brought some medicine to help you with your fatigue!” Yuya added, pulling out a bottle of pills from the bag. He quickly finished off his sucker as he unscrewed the lid. He tossed the sucker stick to the side and took two pills out of the bottle and popped them into his mouth. “Starve Venom is great and all but pumping venom into your system can only do so much. Master Zarc said that we will both heal better and faster if we combined our powers together so open wide!” _

_ “Wha-” _

_ Yuri’s eyes widen in surprise as Yuya closed the distance between them and kissed him. While Yuri was processing what the actual hell was going on right now, Yuya pushed his tongue into Yuri’s mouth along with the pills and forced Yuri to swallow them. As soon as Yuri felt them hit the back of his throat, he pushed Yuya away from him and started coughing, placing a hand to his throat. _

_ “What...the...hell…?!” He coughed. _

_ “There all better!” Yuya exclaimed, capping his hands together, acting like he didn’t just kiss the ever loving daylights out of his Fusion Counterpart. “How do you feel Lily?” _

_ “...I think I’m going to be sick…” _

_ “Then it is working! You should be feeling good as new in a few hours!” _

_ Yuri glared over at Yuya who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. _

_ “Who do you think you are?!” _

_ Now that caught Yuya’s attention. He simply titled his head to the side. “Huh? Is there something wrong, Lily?” _

_ “Yeah this whole thing, that’s what!” _

**_“Yuri, calm down.”_ **

_ “Venom shut up.” Yuri growled at his dragon. After what just happened, he definitely was done with listening to his dragon. “What right do you think you have to just kiss me like that?! Even before you did that, what are you trying to pull by doing all of this? You saved me from the Obelisk Force and now you are taking care of me like a sick puppy?! I don’t know what your game is but I’m not playing it anymore.” _

_ Yuya stared at him for a few seconds after his outburst. Without saying anything, he reached down and started to lift up his shirt. _

_ “Hey now! What are you-?” _

_ Yuri stopped whatever he was going to say as Yuya got his shirt off, revealing his upper body to his fusion counterpart and Yuri could only stare at it in horror. It was covered in all kinds of burns and scars, far too many to count and all too many to be on a eleven-year-old’s body. However, the most horrifying thing had to be the giant puncture wound right where Yuri would assume was where his heart was. _

_ “What happened to you?” Yuri found himself asking.  _

_ “Akaba Leo happened that’s what.” Yuya answered closing his eyes with a sigh. “He took me from my home and tortured me to death. I cried and cried but no one came to save me. Not my mother, not my father, nobody. I was all alone to the very end or I was until he came for me.” _

_ “He?” _

_ “Death. He told me to let go and I did. My spirit left my body but it didn’t go to the afterlife. Oh no, Master Zarc wouldn’t allow that. He would never allow that to happen.” _

_ A sinister smile spread across Yuya’s face. _

_ “My precious Odd-Eyes captured my soul, binding it to its card and while that happened, Death and Master Zarc worked together to get my body working again.” _

_ Yuya’s eyes opened. They were no longer crimson but now glowing bloody red. _

_ “They took my body and gave new life to it.” Yuya placed a hand over his fresh wound over his heart. “Death took his blood, your blood Yuri, and stabbed it and Zarc’s will to live directly into my heart. Your blood is in my veins and Zarc is the one that pumping it. If something should happen to you or if Zarc’s darkness should leave my body, I’ll drop dead once more. So you ask why I’m trying to get you better? To take care of this sick puppy as you put it?” _

_ Yuri looked out right horrified as Yuya’s face got closer to his once more, those demon eyes looking right into his as his evil grin widen. _

_ “Because I don’t plan on dying again.” _

_ And that’s when the cave caved in. _

…

“This is the end for you!”

Ruri was literally hanging on by a thread, watching as Chanbara closed in on her. 

_ I don’t have any other choice,  _ Ruri thought looking over at her monster who gave her a nod.

“I activate the quick-play spell, Lyrical Luscinia - Bird Sound!” Ruri let go of the railing to activate her counter. “By detaching all of Assembly Nightingale’s overlay units, I gain life points equal to the attack Assembly Nightingale gained for each one. Assembly Nightingale gained 200 ATK points for each overlay units and she had three of them so I gain 600 life points.”

All three of Assembly Nightingale’s overlay units flew away from the bird woman and into’s Ruri’s duel disk, gaining her 600 extra life points while Assembly Nightingale lost all of its attack (ATK: 600-0 DEF: 0).

**Ruri: 1800**

**Yugo: 4000**

Assembly Nightingale caught Ruri as she fell at the same time protecting her from the attack of Yugo’s Synchro Monster but unfortunately not from his continuous spell card, costing Ruri 1200 life points but thanks to her last minute play, she was still in this. 

**Ruri: 600**

**Yugo: 4000**

Yugo looked rather annoyed but at last, he let out a sigh. “No bad.”

“Huh?” Assembly Nightingale lowered Ruri closer to the crane so she could get back on it. “Did...did you just compliment my play…?”

“I might hate you with a burning passion but I’m still a duelist and as a duelist, I can respect a good play when I see one. However,” Yugo removed his Horse Stilts from his graveyard and showed it to Ruri. “I remove another Speedroid monster from play to activate Kendama’s effect, dealing you 500 points of damage.”

Ruri braced herself as the synchro monster fired its beam at her. It pushed her back some but Assembly Nightingale was already by Ruri’s side, making sure her master wouldn’t fall off again.

**Ruri: 100**

**Yugo: 4000**

“You just have 100 life points left, flower. During my next turn, I’ll activate Kendama’s effect and finish you off so you better make this turn count.” Yugo stated, ending his turn.

Ruri looked down at her deck in worry at that. Yugo was right. This was her last turn and with Assembly Nightingale at zero ATK points, she couldn’t do anything to him. Even if she could attack, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to beat him. 

Ruri closed her eyes as she placed her fingers on her deck, getting ready to draw.

_ Please… _

If she had her eyes opened, she would’ve noticed her bracelet’s yellow jewel glowing but Yugo sure did.

_ What in the… _

It stopped as soon as Ruri drew her card, opening her eyes to look at it in amazement.

_ This is... _ With a determined look on Ruri’s face, she placed the card onto her monster card zone. “I summon Lyrical Luscinia - Moonstone Sunbird!”

A tiny red belly, blue headed, black feathered with bright blue eyes, the color of moonstones, bird girl appeared on Ruri’s field (ATK: 100 DEF: 0).

“The moon now?” Yugo gritted his teeth in annoyance. First she summoned a  _ bird _ , which happened to be a  _ Wind _ Attribute, and now she summons another  _ bird  _ that just happened to have  _ moon  _ in its name. What was this  _ flower’s  _ game with using all the other natural energies behinds her own?!

“When Lyrical Luscinia - Moonstone Sunbird is summoned, I can perform an Xyz Summon using it and Lyrical Luscinia monsters in my graveyard as Xyz Material.” Ruri stated much to Yugo’s surprise.

“HUH?!”

“I overlay my Moonstone Sunbird with my two Cobalt Sparrows, Sapphire Swallow, and Turquoise Warbler in my graveyard!”

_ “Bird with stars in its wings! Fly into battle to protect your flock! Xyz Summon! Recite your melody of defeat! Rank 1! Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling!" _

From a gust of wind, flying down next to Assembly Nightingale, was a blue feathered harpie-like creature with glowing white stars in its wings (ATK: 0 DEF: 0). 

“When Recite Starling is Xyz Summoned, a monster on the field gains 300 ATK and DEF for each Xyz material currently attached to it. I chose my Assembly Nightingale.”

Recite Starling started singing and much to Yugo’s surprise, it was beautiful and relaxing to the Synchro Duelist, almost putting him to sleep on the spot as Assembly Nightingale powered up from her comrade’s song from each of her five overlay units (ATK: 0-1500 DEF: 0-1500).

“Assembly Nightingale can attack my opponent directly.” Ruri stated. “And while I was hesitant to do this before, I’m not losing this duel under your terms, Yugo. So go, Assembly Nightingale, attack Yugo directly with Songbird Stormwave!”

Yugo gritted his teeth at that, looking down at his graveyard but noting it wasn’t worth it just yet so he took the hit of the bird woman’s attack full on. 

**Ruri: 100**

**Yugo: 2500**

“Is that the best that you can do, Flower?” Yugo challenged, after catching his balance.

Ruri looked hesitant but soon had that brave look on her face again. “Recite Starling also has a special ability. Any battle damage that I take in battle from her is also inflicted onto my opponent.”

“So? What does that have to do with…” Yugo stopped himself when he saw that fearless look on Ruri’s face. “Wait, you aren’t…” 

“That’s right, Yugo, I declare an attack with Lyrical Luscinia - Recite Starling on your Hi-Speedroid Chanbara! And thanks to its own effect, it attack increases by 200!”

Yugo watched in shock as his own monster’s attack went up once more like Ruri said it would (ATK: 2400-2600 DEF: 1000).

“Are you nuts!? You will lose this duel if this attack lands!”

“So will you.” Ruri smiled sadly at him. “I can’t lose this duel but I can’t also bare the thought of me accidentally killing someone just so I could survive. So I’ve come to the decision that if I can’t win this duel, I’ll just end it in the draw! So go, Recite Starling! Attack Chanbara and waste both of our life points to zero!”

…

_ The small child that was Yuri didn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late. The first rock hit him on the back of his head, causing him to fall to the ground.  _

_ “Lily!” _

_ Everything was spinning for Yuri. He was pretty sure he heard Yuya’s voice but he wasn’t to sure. All of his senses were more focused on the giant lump on top of his head at the moment to really register anything else. _

_ Yuya, on the other hand, looked rather annoyed at what was happening right now more than anything. The falling rocks were still raining down on them but his pegasus had soon stepped in and used its large wings to protect them both from any more fall damage. _

_ “Did we get them?” _

_ “No, doesn’t look like it. That stupid horse of theirs shielded them from the rocks for the most part.” _

_ The cave was nonexisting now, giving Yuya a clear view of the sky. Flying down from a helicopter were three members of the Obelisk Force. _

_ “You know, it is awfully mean to throw rocks at people, especially children!” Yuya yelled at the Obelisk Force as the landed right in front of them. _

_ “What is this brat going on about?” One of them asked. _

_ “He’s supposed to be 11, isn’t he? I’m wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know what was going on. What I want to know is why he’s half naked?” Another one asked, gesturing to Yuya. _

_ “That doesn’t matter,” the Obelisk Force member with the red jewel in his helmet activated his duel disk, signaling for the other two to do the same, “we have our orders to eliminate them.” _

_ “Well that’s not very nice.” Yuya pouted, looking down at Yuri, who might have gotten himself a concussion for all he knew, then back at the Obelisk Force. “Sure, I might have killed your top researcher but what did Lily do? What’s he guilty of other than being to adorable of course.” _

_ “You be quiet, demon.” The Obelisk Force member with the yellow jewel said as he placed a card on his duel disk. “I summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in attack mode.” _

_ A hound made up of old gear with glowing red eyes appeared in front of the Obelisk Force members with a growl towards the Standard and Fusion pair (ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000).  _

_ “Hey! I didn’t even activate my duel disk, you-” _

_ “This isn’t a duel, kid! This is a assassination. Go Hunting Hound! Ripped them to pieces!” _

_ The hound let out a snarl as it leaped at the counterparts. However, before it could even get close to them, it was blocked by Yuya’s pegasus who easily knocked the beast back with it's wings. _

_ “Now that is plan out cheating!” Yuya exclaimed, looking almost angry in a childish way. “First you kidnapped me out of nowhere and now you try to kill Lily and me without even putting up a fair fight?!” _

_ “This is a battle, kid. All that matters is winning.” _

_ “Oh is that so?” Yuya’s wicked smile returned as he activated his duel disk. “I’ll keep that in mind, you bullies.”  _

**Yuya: 4000**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 4000**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 4000**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 4000**

_ “So you want to play dirty? Okay, I’ll do just that as well.” Yuya nodded to his pegasus and with a nod back from the creature, the dual-colored red and blue eyed winged-beast took to the field (ATK: 2400 DEF: 2000). _

_ “What?! A level 7 monster?!” _

_ “And without tribute!?” _

_ “You must be cheating!” _

_ “Takes one to know one, you bullies,” Yuya replied, “but no, this isn’t cheating one bit. Since I control no monsters, I can special summon Odd-Eyes Pegasus onto my field by cutting his attack points in half.” As soon as he said that, his pegasus looked rather annoyed as his strength was cut in half (ATK: 2400-1200 DEF: 2000). “Sorry pony, but it is thanks to your sacrifice that I can activate your effect! When my pony’s attack changes, it can deal the differences to my opponent's life points!”  _

_ “What?!” _

_ “Hmm, I’m not the best at math but I’ll pretty sure that means that each of you take 1200 points of damage.” Yuya smiled innocently as his mythical creature flapped its wings and dealt some hard core damage to each of the masked warriors. _

**Yuya: 4000**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 2800**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 2800**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 2800**

_ “Such a shame I can’t attack on the first turn.” Yuya frowned as he placed two cards face down. “I guess I have to end things for now.” _

_ The Obelisk Force member with the green gem gritted his teeth at that. “You will pay for that. From my hand, I activate Polymerization. I fuse together the Ancient Gear Hunting Hound that’s on the field with the one in my hand.” _

“Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level 5! Double Ancient Gear Hunting Hound.”

_ A two headed version of the normal hunting hound formed from the fusion from the metal beast (ATK: 1400 DEF: 1000). _

_ “Oh how cute! It is a metal orthrus!” Yuya exclaimed, his eyes sparking while the Ancient Gear monster sweatdropped at the way Yuya was looking at it. _

_ “Cute? Let's see if you are still saying that after my hound feasts on your pegasus bones! Attack!” _

_ The two headed hound charged at the winged-beast. Odd-Eyes Pegasus tried its best to fight back but at last, it was tore to piece by the metal doggy. _

**Yuya: 3800**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 2800**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 2800**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 2800**

_ “No! Not my pony! You monsters!” Yuya looked like he was about to burst into tears. _

_ “Oh cry me a river.” _

_ In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best choice of words. _

_ Yuya’s crying fit was quickly gone at that and instead looked to be replaced with rage. “Oh now you done it. I activate my trap, Pendulum Reborn! This allows me to special summon a Pendulum Monster from my Extra Deck and I choose the one you meanies just destroyed!” _

_ “Pendulum Monster?” The Obelisk Force all looked confused at the term as they watched Odd-Eyes Pegasus returned to the field with a rather pissed off look on its face and this time around with its full strength. However, the current number must have been expecting something was this to happen because he was grinning. “I knew that was going to be too easy so that’s why I summoned my double hound. When you happen to summon a monster, Double Hunting Hound places a Gear Counter on it.”  _

_ A floating gear appeared above the Odd-Eyes monster head. _

_ Yuya tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Uh, what does that do?” _

_ “You’ll find out sooner than later.” The Obelisk Force grinned as he ended his turn. _

_ The red jewel one was next as he drew his card. “I activate Polymerization. I fuse the Double Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with another Hunting Hound in my hand.” _

“Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level 7! Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound.”

_ A metal cerberus beast appeared on the field (ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000). _

_ “You guys sure do like metal doggies huh?” Yuya mused before he smiled. “Do you guys know what I like?” _

_ “And what’s that?” _

_ “Burn damage.” Yuya answered as he activated his second face down. “I play my trap Unbreakable Spirit. Since I only control one monster, Odd-Eyes Pegasus gains the attack of the monster on the field with the lowest attack. All you have is your metal doggy so that’s 1800 more ATK points for my pony and you know what that means? Its effect triggers!” Yuya answered his own question with a song like tone as his monster’s attack rose by 1800 (ATK: 2400-4200 DEF: 2000), while the Obelisk Force lost the same amount of life points.  _

**Yuya: 3800**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 1000**

_ “If only it was fire,” Yuya sighed before he grinned. “Now what are you going to do, you meanies?” _

_ “Give you a taste of your own medicine, you brat.” The Obelisk Force member declared as he activated a card. “I active the continuous spell card,  Ancient Armageddon Gear. During the end phase, this card will be destroyed but until then, every time a monster is destroyed, its controller takes its attack points as damage.”  _

_ Yuya didn’t look impressed. “You say that like you are going to destroy my monster. Last I checked, Pegasus has higher attack points.” _

_ “That is where you are wrong. Since your Odd-Eyes Pegasus has a Gear Counter on it, it doesn’t matter how strong it is! When it is attacked, it is automatically destroyed!” _

_ “Um...say what now?” _

_ “Go Triple Hunting Hound. Attack Odd-Eyes Pegasus!” _

_ Yuya could only stand there in shock at what happened next. Even though Pegasus had double the attack, the Gear Counter that was placed upon it made it all for nothing as the three headed beast took out the winged-beast with ease. _

_ “And now, thanks to Ancient Armageddon Gear, you take damage equal to Odd-Eyes Pegasus attack points! Now who is the one laughing.” _

_ Apparently it wasn’t Yuya as the kid ended up being blasted to the ground by the card effect but not before he sent a card of his own from the hand to the graveyard. _

**Yuya: 0**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 1000**

**“Yuri, this would be a nice time to get your ass up now!”**

His whole head felt like it was being split open after that rock landed right on top of him. Starve Venom was doing anything in his power to get him up and moving again but Yuri could barely process anything other than the pain. However, like magic, everything seemed to focus at hearing the sound of his Standard Counterpart hitting the ground. Yuri’s eyes went wide as he looked over at Yuya’s form.

_ “Yu-” _

_ Yuri didn’t even get a chance to finish as his Standard Counterpart was carded right before his eyes by the Obelisk Force. _

_ “And that’s one down. Onto the other one, boys.” _

_ Yuri looked up at that as he processed towards him. “Hey! Just what do you think you are doing?!” He questioned. _

_ “Isn’t it obvious? We have orders to card you.” _

_ “From who?!” _

_ “From the Professor obviously.” _

_ Yuri froze at that. He looked over at the carded form that was now Sakaki Yuya. _

_ “Why?” He asked, shaking slightly. _

_ “Why?” All three Obelisk Force members laughed which only served to annoy Yuri further. “Who knows why. He just made it very clear that he wanted you out of the picture. He even made you wear that bio-band to weaken you so it would be easier to card you. Who knew that you would still be such a challenge even as your life force has been leached away from you.” _

_ Yuri gritted his teeth. _

Yuya was telling the truth.

**_“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time, you moron!”_ **

_ For once, Yuri had no say against his dragon’s words.  _

_ “So why don’t you make this easy for yourself and let us card you quick and painless, Yuri-sama.” _

_ Yuri never activated his duel disk more quickly. _

_ “Bite me.” _

…

“I active the effect of Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice.”

Ruri was shocked to see one of Yugo’s tuner monsters appear on the field and stopped her monster from ending both of them.

“What?”

“By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice from my graveyard, I can negate your attack.” Yugo explained looking rather annoyed at having almost lost.

Ruri was at a loss for words as her Recite Starling returned to her side of the field. She’s lost. She knows she did. All she had to do now was end her turn and Yugo would deal the final blow.

“Well? Are you going to end your turn or not?” Yugo questioned, looking impatient.

Ruri bit her lip at that.

“I-”

“Yugo, what are you doing?”

Yugo and Ruri both went silent at the sound of that voice. Both duelists had to shield themselves from the wind as they turned to see the sight of Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon descent onto the battlefield with its duelist.

“Yuto…” Ruri gapsed.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Yugo questioned at the same time. “You are supposed to be looking after Yuya!”

“And you were supposed to be looking for Ray’s Flower.” Yuto countered, looking down at Ruri with narrowed eyes. “Or that was what I was lead to believe anyway.”

“What the hell are you going on about now?!” Yugo exclaimed, pointing to Ruri. “Are you blind?! I’m doing that right now and I’m just about to beat her into submission!”

“That’s Ray’s Bird.” 

Yugo paused as he was about to say something else. “Uh...what?”

Yuto was completely emotionless but even he looked close to facepalming at that. “Did you seriously not know that? I thought the birds would’ve clued you in as soon as you saw them. Apparently, I was wrong.”

Yugo opened his mouth but simply closed it with snarl as he glared at Ruri. “So you are saying she’s useless than?”

“Hard to tell. Her bracelet could fix Yuya or make him worse.” Yuto answered as he shook his head before waving her off. “But I don’t think we should take our chances. Kill her.”

Ruri looked up at him, horrified. 

“Yuto…”

“I activate Kendama’s effect. I banish Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice from my graveyard to inflict 500 points of damage to your life points.”

“Wait! Yuto…!” Ruri didn’t get much further than that as the effect of his Synchro Monster blasted her straight off the crane. This time, she wasn’t so lucky and the focus of the shock waves ended up pushing her further back that she couldn’t even reach for the crane even if she tried. Her two winged-beast could only stare in horror as their master’s life points dropped to zero, making them disappear, as Ruri fell to her doom, screaming.

**Ruri: 0**

**Yugo: 2500**

Yuto and Yugo watched in silence as Ruri’s body hit the water with a loud splash.

“All of that for nothing.” Yugo said after a few minutes, gritting his teeth.

“We should regroup at the Void.” Yuto suggested as he gestured for Yugo to get on Dark Rebellion. “Maybe we can figure out something there.”

Yugo merely nodded as Yuto offered him a hand to get on his dragon. Yugo took it but paused for a second when he smelt something.

Yuto looked down at him. “Something the matter?”

“Oh...nothing..” Yugo answered as he climbed the rest of the way onto the Xyz Dragon. Yuto said something to that as he snapped his fingers, giving his dragon the command to leave.

If they stayed around for a few more seconds, they would’ve noticed a flock of birds heading their way towards the direction where Ruri fell at.

…

**_“Intrusion penalty 2000 Life Points!”_ **

**Yuri: 2000**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 1000**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 1000**

_ Yuri drew his card, completely ignoring the shocks his duel disk unleashed onto him while the Obelisk Force looked confused as to why there was an intrusion penalty.  _

_ “Hey what gives?” One of them questioned. _

_ “The system must be messed up since I summoned my Hound Dog before there was even a duel in the first place.” Another stated. _

_ “It doesn’t matter. There is no way he can beat us in the condition that he’s in.” The final one chimed in. _

_ Yuri narrowed his eyes at that. “You want to bet? I summon Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio.” _

_ A green scorpion with a plant as its stringer appeared on the field (ATK: 1200 DEF: 800).  _

_ “When Ophrys Scorpio is summoned, its effect activates, allowing me to send one monster from my hand to the graveyard to special summon a Predaplant monster from my deck.” After sending Predaplant Spinodionaea to the graveyard, a two headed green snake with a flower glowing from the end of its tail bloomed onto the field with a hiss (ATK: 1000 DEF: 1500). _

_ “I special summon Predaplant Darling Cobra and when its special summoned by the effect of a Predaplant monster, I can added a fusion card from my deck to my hand.” _

_ The Obelisk Force all looked nervous at that, knowing what was about to happen next. _

_ “And while we are at it, I activate it.” _

“Poisonous scorpion! Temptatious snake! Become one now and give birth to a new terror that lies within your petals! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level 7! Predaplant Chimerafflesia!”

_ From the fusion voltex came a monstrous rafflesia with multiple roots coming from it, two of which had mouths (ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000). _

_ “Now from my hand, I activate Predapruning. This allows me to special summon one Predaplant monster from my graveyard and equip it with this card. The monster I choose is Predaplant Spinodionaea.” _

_ A green spinosaurus with a venus flytrap growing from its back arose onto the field from the graveyard (ATK: 1800 DEF: 0).  _

_ “Spinodionaea’s effect activates. When it is summoned, a monster on my opponent's side of the field gains one Predator Counter.” _

_ A tiny plant like creature shot out of the plant dinosaur’s back and attached itself to the Obelisk Force’s hound dog. _

_ “I play the quick-play spell, Seed of Deception. This allows me to special summon one level 2 or lower plant-type monster from my hand which will be Predaplant Chlamydosundew.” _

_ A green lizard with sundew growing out of it appeared on the field with Yuri’s other plants (ATK: 600 DEF: 200). _

_ “During my main phase, I can use Chlamydosundew and another monster from my hand or field as fusion materials to perform a fusion summon. However, if my opponent controls a monster with a Predator Counter, I can use that monster to perform a fusion summon as well and treat it as a Dark Attribute along with it.” _

_ “What?!” _

_ Chlamydosundew’s long tongue shot out of its mouth and wrapped itself around Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, forcing it into the fusion summon. _

“Mechanical dog that hunts others! Become one with the wildlife and give rise to a new predator! Fusion Summon! Level 8! Predaplant Dragostapelia!”

_ Standing tall next to Yuri’s first fusion monster was a plant dragon with a stapelia growing from its back (ATK: 2700 DEF: 1900). _

_ Yuri activated the last card that was in his hand. “I activate Fusion Recovery to add back Polymerization and Predaplant Darling Cobra to my hand and then I activate the former to fuse together Darling Cobra that is now back in my hand with Predaplant Spinodionaea on my field.” _

“Two beautiful flowers with an insect-alluring fragrance! Now become one, and from the hell beneath your petals, give birth to a new terror! Fusion Summon! Appear! Poisonous dragon with hungry fangs. Level 8! Starve Venom Fusion Dragon!”

_ If the first two monsters weren’t nightmare fuel enough already, this dragon definitely took the cake as Yuri’s ace monster rose onto the field with a terrifying roar (ATK: 2800 DEF: 2000). _

**_“Hello boys, remember me?! The dragon you stole earlier?!”_ **

_ By now, all three Obelisk Force members looked terrified out of their minds as the three man-eating fusion monsters on Yuri’s field stared them down with hungry eyes and drool running down their fangs. Starve Venom looked especially pleased at what was being served to him for dinner. _

_ “Please, have mercy!” One of them begged. _

_ “Mercy?” The word run off Yuri’s tongue like it was poison. “Hmm...last I checked, you weren’t showing us any mercy. You even killed that clone of mine in cold blood and you still have the balls to ask for mercy?” Yuri laughed at that as he snapped his fingers. _

_ What happened next was an outright blood bath. _

_ Chimerafflesia swallowed the first Obelisk Force member whole. His screams were echoing from its mouth until its teeth started chewing down. _

_ Dragostapelia took its sweet time unlike the former. It wrapped its tail around the second Obelisk Force member, squeezing the life out of him slowly and painful. His face that was visible underneath his mask was turning as blue as his uniform and then a shade of purple that matched Yuri’s outfit.  It wasn’t long until his body went limb within the monster’s hold and once knowing this, the fusion monster started eating. _

_ Starve Venom was a mix of the two. It unleashed its four other mouths on its back that shot across the ground toward the final Obelisk Force member like snakes. Each of its mouth went for an appendage, two for the arms and two for the legs, and within seconds they captured their targets. The Obelisk Force member screamed bloody murder as his limbs were being devoured right before his eyes but Starve Venom wasn’t done yet, far from it. The monster’s final and main mouth on it face lowered its chin down towards the Obelisk Force soldier. The fear on the Academia's member was as clear as day as Starve Venom opened its mouth and snapped it shut like a venus flytrap around the Obelisk Force’s head. _

**_“Mmm delicious…”_ **

**Yuri: 2000**

**Obelisk Force (Red): 0**

**Obelisk Force (Green): 0**

**Obelisk Force (Yellow): 0**

_ The eleven year old watched his monsters as this was all happening. Any other kid his ages wouldn’t be able to ever sleep again after what they just witness but instead of looking horrified, Yuri had the most twisted look on his face ever that would send grown men running for the hills. _

_ However, someone didn’t seem to take that as “get the hell away from this kid and fast.” _

_ “Wow Lily! That was awesome! Do it again! Do it again!” _

_ Yuri looked over his shoulder at that and you can imagine the expression on his face when he saw no other than… _

_ “Yuya…?” _

_ “Yep!” His Standard Counterpart grinned in response. He was now spotting a black shirt and red pants along with a matching red hooded robe, the hood being up over his head where his goggles once were. Where the actual hell did he get all that, let alone enough time to change, were Yuri’s first thoughts at seeing him.  _

_ “But...how…? You were supposed to be carded!” _

_ “Technically, I should be dead even before that but like I told you, me and Death have a very...interesting relationship.” Yuya licked his lips, sending a shiver down Yuri’s spine at remembering that he happened to kiss him. “But to answer your question, it’s rather simple really. I was never carded to begin with.” _

_ “But…” Yuri looked down at what was supposed to be Yuya’s carded form only to see it disappear into thin air.  _

_ “Just before that effect would’ve taken out the rest of my life points, I sent Odd-Eyes Koma to the graveyard to cut the damage I would have taken in half.” Yuya explained simply as he gestured to his duel disk. “If you don’t believe me, take a look.” _

_ Yuri did just that and to his own surprise… _

**Yuya: 1700**

**Yuri: 2000**

_ So that’s why I got an intrusion pentry. Yuri realized in astonishment as he looked back at Yuya who was grinning at him. “Than how…” _

_ “Oh the whole carded thing? That was just an illusion, an effect caused by Koma’s effect to make it seem like I lost.” Yuya answered rather simply. _

_ “But why?” Yuri questioned. “Why go through the trouble to make it seem like you lost?” _

_ “Because I wanted to see your skills in action, Lily!” Yuya exclaimed like it was obvious. “I really didn’t get to see them since the bio-band was sucking out your life force like that. Good thing I cut it off when I did or that could have gotten messy! However, I didn’t expect my death would trigger you like that.”  _

_ Yuri felt his face heat up at Yuya’s chester cat grin. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I was just pissed that they were trying to kill me.” _

_ “Sure Lily~” _

_ “And for the love of Ra, stop calling me that!” _

_ “Never!” _

_ Yuri looked like he was going to say something to that but stopped himself when the pressure from the hit to his head came back ten-fold all of the sudden. _

_ “What…” He grabbed his head as he felt his body start to not respond again. _

**_“I guess that adrenaline I pumped into you at the last second to save your ass is starting to wear off.”_ **

_ “Are you serious…?” Yuri groaned as he face planted to the ground while Yuya watched this with a grin. _

_ “Well I guess that’s one way to knock someone out.” _

_ … _

_ Behind his mask,Yuri grinned to himself as he watched Yuya carry his younger self to him on his back. _

_ “I see everything worked out as it was supposed to.” Death mused with a chuckle. _

_ “Well I’m pretty sure you have a concussion but I don’t think that affects anything.” Yuya smiled as he dropped Yuri off his back to the ground. “He’ll be better than he will ever be in just a few seconds.” _

_ “Couldn’t have said it better myself, my little jester.” _

_ Death walked over to Yuri’s knocked out form and kneeled down next to it. He smirked behind his face as he took out his knife from earlier that was completely clean as he looked over at Yuya.  _

_ “Feel like doing the honors?” _

_ Yuya’s smile widen to a terrifying length as he took the weapon from Yuri. Raising his hand up, he stabbed the knife directly into his palm, biting his tongue to keep himself from screaming but from the look on his face, that doesn’t look to be the cause. _

_ “My, isn’t someone a little masochist?” Death chuckled as he watched Yuya pull the knife out of his palm, effectively coating it in his blood.  _

_ “What can I say? When you been tortured as long as I have, you almost start to enjoy the pain.” Yuya replied with a dark laugh as he handed the blade back to Yuri. Afterwards, Yuya proceeded to lick the blood from his massive wound as his hand continued to bleed out, not even seeming affected by the amount of blood he was losing. “And I believe the term you would use for me is actually sadomasochist.” _

_ Yuri licked his lips at the sight behind his mask before turning his attention back to his younger self. _

_ “Yes, what a simple Transfusion can do to a person.” _

_ And that when Yuri stabbed the knife directly into his younger self’s heart.  _

...

“Well that amounted to pretty much nothing.”

Yuto glanced over at Yugo who looked just about ready to murders someone else. His eyes were continuously flashing from his normal turquoise eyes to his glowing bright green when Zarc’s influence was presence.

“For Yuya’s condition, yes,” Yuto replied in his emotionless tone, “but we did learn something from this experience.”

“And what would that be?”

“Ray’s Bracelets apparently have more power than we thought.”

“Well geez, I never would have guessed that! It is not like they ripped our very soul into four or anything along with an entire dimension!”

“That’s not what I mean, Yugo.” Yuto stopped so he was facing his Synchro Counterpart. “We knew that together, those four bracelets, Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, were godlike but even on their own, they still pose a huge threat to our lives. We are simply fragments of our master’s soul and on our own, none of us don’t even come close to the power that Zarc had and even he was easily destroyed by those four cards. So what does that say for us?”

Yugo narrowed his eyes at that. “Are you basically saying we don’t stand a chance against them?”

“What I’m saying is that you got extremely lucky that you aren’t like Yuya at the moment and that was just from  _ one  _ bracelet. If just one of them has that much power over our lives, we need to rethink our strategy which means,” Yuto’s icy cold eyes looked to be staring directly into Yugo’s soul, “no more rushing into battle without a plan, Yugo.” 

“Are you serious what now?” Now Yugo was really starting to sound pissed off as he returned Yuto’s cold stare. “I had everything under control!”

“No, you didn’t. I know the Bird. She pity you because you look like me. If she really was letting loose, you would be the one in the ocean right now, not her.”

Yugo gritted his teeth. Now that was the last straw. He could stand him calling them as a whole weak but saying he would’ve lost was something he wouldn’t stand for. There was no way he would’ve lost, especially since she even tried to throw the match so they would have both lose. He didn’t even have to use Clear Wing either. Sure, that weird female that lives in his head now told him not to but still. With his fingers rolled back into a fist, he threw a punch aiming straight for Yuto’s face. 

No surprise to anyone, Yuto caught it within seconds, not even close to hitting his face.

“My point exactly,” The Xyz Duelist said with a sigh.

“Oh shut it, you-”

The scent hit Yugo again so quickly that it almost stunned him. It took him a minute to register but this time around, he was able to recognize it. Once he did, he quickly pulled his arm away from Yuto who gladly let him have it back as he turned to start walking back to where they were heading.

“Yuto…”

Yuto didn’t say anything but Yugo knew that he had his attention.

“Why do you smell like gasoline?”

The Xyz Duelist stopped in his steps and glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Oh don’t play dumb with me! I worked on building a duel runner for half of my life and been around them for the other half. I know what gasoline smells like. Now answer my question, why do you smell like it?”

“I set Heartland on fire. I needed something to make the flames travel.”

“Yeah, because it's not like you have a dragon to do that for you.”

Yuto narrowed his eyes at that comment. “Is there a point to this, Yugo?”

“Yeah, what the heck have you been doing while I was gone because you definitely didn’t smell like gasoline the last time I saw you. You’re not the type to lie Yuto so what gives?”

Yuto just stared at him but he didn’t bother to answer him and started to walk down the hallway once more.

“Hey!” Yugo yelled, chasing after him. “You didn’t answer my-”

Yuto stopped all of the sudden, causing Yugo to run right into his back.

“Hey! What gives you-”

“Oh there you two are. I was beginning to wonder what happened to you lot.”

_ Oh no... _ Yugo gritted his teeth as he slide past Yuto to see if that voice beyond to who he think it did this time around.

Sure enough, there was Yuri, sitting with his legs crossed on their sofa with Yuya’s head resting in his lap. One arm was perched on the armrest with his head resting on his fist while his other was casually running his fingers through Yuya’s hair. He looked rather amused for a guy who had a body resting on him as he watched Yuto and Yugo with interest.

“Yuri,” Yuto was the first to greet the fusion counterpart. “I see you finally decide to show your face.”

“Yeah! Where the actual hell have you been this entire time?!” Yugo added in.

“Places that have nothing to do with the likes of you two.” Yuri answered before he smiled coldly at his counterparts. “Now I have a question for you two. Would someone care to explain what happened to my little jester right here and who of you two idiots should I blame for his soul being missing from his body?”

Yuto said nothing while Yugo replied with…

“Soul?”

“Yes, his soul or technically Zarc’s. The master’s darkness was the only thing that was keeping him alive these last few years and now that he was kicked out of Yuya’s body, his body has just stopped working. So now, I’ll ask again. Which one of you two idiots should I blame for allowing this to happen?”

Neither one of them answered but instead of looking annoyed, Yuri smile widen.

“No one is going to say anything? Very well then, gentlemen, have it your way.”

Yuri raised his hand and from it came a blast of dark energy. Yuto and Yugo barely had any time to react as they were knocked off their feet and knocked back into the wall. 

“Damn...you...Yuri…” Yugo groaned. “I-”

Yugo went to stand up, ready to beat the living daylights out of Yuri if it wasn’t for what happened next that left him going “WHAT THE HELL?!”at the sight. Even emotionless Yuto looked almost surprised at the sight.

Yuri was kissing Yuya like from a scene from an old fairy tale.

And in a matter of second, Yuya was kissing him back.

…

“Xyz, Synchro, and now Standard.”

A man who couldn’t have been any older than sixteen pushed up his glasses as he looked at the blue screen before him. It showed images of the Obelisk Force getting carded in Xyz Dimension along with the massive fire that Yuto created. Another one showed images of the Synchro Dimension of Clear Wing Synchro Dragon being unleashed into a stadium and wreaking havoc throughout with a similar image of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon during the same thing in the Standard Dimension. Underneath these images were other set of screenshots but these were of the three duelists that started this pathway of destruction.

“The Horsemen have finally made their move. Conquest, War, and Famine but Death has yet to shown his face.” 

He leaned back in his chair in thought before he pushed a button on his desk.

A screen appeared in front of him, showing a kid with short blue hair tied back into a ponytail wearing an Obelisk Blue uniform. He was currently enjoying a lollipop and almost seemed annoyed at having been disturbed.

“Oh hello, sir.” The boy licked his lollipop without a care in the world. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“In fact, there is. I want you to head to Standard to take care of someone for me. Think you can handle it, Shiunin Sora.

The boy, Sora, smiled brightly at that as he took a large bit out of his sucker. “Oh don’t worry, Lieutenant, this will be a piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for those of you that know me, is anyone surprised that I made Jester/Rottenshipping a thing in this? Totally has NOTHING to do with them being my OTP or anything. In my defense, it really isn't healthy in the least in this XD It is bad and I'll admit it but hey, it works and I love it. 
> 
> I was also going to add some more events to this chapter but I figured it was long enough and just push those to a different one so not everything is being revealed all at once.
> 
> So what is going to happen in chapter 6? Well...um...this is the chapter where I'm planning on showing just how insane Yuya is in this and why I had to change this to M just because of this psychopath.
> 
> So overall, what did you guys think? I love to hear what part of the story you guys enjoyed more and why and as always, I hope you guys are enjoying this hell I'm creating as a whole.


End file.
